World No. 3 and U.S. Champion Fabiano Caruana showed off his newfound mastery of speed chess last week as he won the SuperUnited Zagreb Rapid and Blitz with a combined score of 27/36 tournament, which is part of the Chess Grand Tour organized in St. Louis. With five rounds remaining, Caruana is a sure winner.
Rapid (G25+10) and Lightning (G5+2) have nine rounds each, and the former counts double points. The total prize award is $175,000. In nine years on tour, there have been 10 quick/blitz totals of 24.5 or better, five of which were dominated by Carlson, Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Hikaru Nakamura, Wei Yi and Wesley once each.
Caruana played some impressive games, including a quick round in the final round against Anish Giri where he and his coach Grigory Oparin put him in a well-prepared opening with 6 Qd3 and 7g3 was named “Delayed Zagreb” because 6g3 was already called Zagreb vs. Nadov Sicily. Caruana’s last move 41 Qa7! Shocking his opponents.
The Zagreb result was a major boost for Caruana, who has been honing his speed game in the years following his disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Championship Challenge, where the American He maintained his record in 12 hard-fought battles with Carlsen, eventually losing 0-3 in the quick decider.
Caruana has now climbed all the way up to second behind Carlson in International De’s rapid ratings, and up to sixth in Blitz. In top-level chess, small profits matter. If Caruana can win his final match against Ian Nepomniachtchi in April’s Candidates Round, he and India’s Dom Raju Gukesh (Dommaraju Gukesh) will meet in a speed tie-break, with the American being the favorite. Gukš finished tenth in Zagreb Blitz, losing five games in a single day.
Former world champion Garry Kasparov, one of the organizers of the Grand Chess Tour who was also in Zagreb at the time, recently published an article on X taking aim at Gukesh and Ding Liren, the two will compete for the crown in 14 games in Singapore in November.
Kasparov wrote: “The World Championship should be a match between the two strongest players. Of course, it was not the case… It was an interesting match. I would hardly call it a World Championship.
Kasparov has this form of commentary, notably in 2023 when he called Din v Nepomniachtchi “a kind of amputation” and in 2012 when he criticized then world number 20 Boris Gelfand (Boris Gelfand) became Vishy Anand’s challenger and then no 4.
Clearly, Ding and Gukesh are legitimate contenders, and the absence of the No. 1 spot is due to Carlsen voluntarily giving up the title. Having said that, Kasparov has a point. He competed in eight World Championship matches, five against Anatoly Karpov, who was ranked No. 1 or No. 2 at the time, and two against leading contenders Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, while Nye Jerry Short convincingly defeated Karpov in 1993 to become world champion.
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By comparison, only one of the last nine championship games was the No. 1 vs. No. 2 match between Carlsen and Caruana in 2018. Yaqiqi is also No. 2 vs. No. 3.
In 2024, Ding Junhui has been in poor condition and health throughout the year, and Gukesh’s performance since becoming a challenger has been below par. Therefore, the 2024 live Classics ratings currently rank 6th vs. 15th in the world championship. is a perfectly legal contest, but if the quality of the contest is low, its credibility may be called into question.
The Crunchlabs Masters, the latest event on the online Champions Tour, begins on Wednesday and continues next week. Carlsen was due to play in Zagreb but withdrew due to the death of his mother Sigrun Øen aged 61, and will be a favorite.
The Mindsports International Open, which starts on Thursday, is a fun and intense event pitting European grandmasters and masters against English experts and young talents. The matches are held at the MindSports Center in London and top action can be watched online every day on lichess.
3929 1 Qxh4+! Kxh4 2 Rh7+ Kg5 3 h4 partner.
