Caruana Storms To Victory In Croatian Rapid, Takes 3-Point Lead Into Blitz
GM Fabiano Caruana has climbed to world number-two on the rapid live rating list after beating GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Anish Giri, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to end the rapid section of the 2024 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia on a towering 15/18 points. Second-placed GM Wesley So is three points behind, while GM Levon Aronian is four points back going into the weekend's 18 rounds of blitz.
Day four starts Saturday, July 13, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 6:30 p.m. IST.
SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz Standings Before Blitz
Caruana Lives Dangerously Then Dominates
Caruana came to Zagreb after scoring 3/3 to win the rapid playoff of the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, and he's brought that form to the Croatian capital to gain a whopping 39.1 rating points on the 2700chess rapid live rating list.
It hasn't always been quite as smooth as it looks, however. In the first game of the day, a rapid clash with Gukesh that we almost got to see at the end of the FIDE Candidates in Toronto, Caruana felt he had a very comfortable position... before he threw it all away in one move! He said of his 32...a5?:
"Suddenly I was like, OK, I’ll play a5. After thinking about all the other moves, I decided, but as soon as I let go of the pawn… I was thinking, a3, but a3 doesn’t lead anywhere for White, then suddenly I realized 33.a4!, and then I'm losing on the spot!"
I suddenly realized 33.a4!, and then I'm losing on the spot!
—Fabiano Caruana
In the end, however, Caruana would actually go on not just to survive, but to win!
A classy finish by Caruana, and instead of a Gukesh win and a 5-way tie for 1st, Fabiano has a 2-point lead! https://t.co/MXTLKenSZ7 #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/QAf31lfLPE
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 12, 2024
That game was crucial for the standing, since with a win Gukesh would have caught Caruana and we would have had a five-way tie for first place. Instead the U.S. star took a two-point lead, while Gukesh's suffering would continue in the next round.
An opening gone wrong saw Aronian give up his queen, to silicon howls of derision, but the game became a nightmare for the Indian GM when the pieces, and pawns, overpowered his queen.
During that game 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov voiced the opinion that the 18-year-old challenger to the crown was still getting used to handling the pressure at the top.
Kasparov: "The problem for Gukesh is there's too much pressure on his shoulders, because he's a good player, but he's not Magnus Carlsen"#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/ARrx8SSRPq
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 12, 2024
His other point, however, was that Gukesh's occasional struggles in speed chess are similar to those of the young Caruana. The 31-year-old version, meanwhile, went from strength to strength.
About the second game of the day against Giri, Caruana revealed that in the run-up to the event he'd discussed with his second GM Grigoriy Oparin that 6.g3 in the Sicilian Najdorf is actually named the Zagreb Variation, after the city they were playing in. Therefore they decided to call the novelty he played, 6.Qd3 Nbd7 7.g3!?, the "Delayed Zagreb."
Fabiano Caruana christens his 7.g3 novelty vs. Giri the "Delayed Zagreb"!#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/c1QgRd4zcW
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 12, 2024
Caruana admitted the opening wasn't a huge success, but said he was "very surprised and happy" when his opponent went for "a very concrete solution" with a d5-pawn break that just didn't work.
The final game of the day saw Team Caruana's opening laboratory deliver again as a rare 10th move in the Ruy Lopez, previously played by Caruana's second Oparin, provoked Vachier-Lagrave to push a pawn to a5. Six moves later that pawn had fallen, and although few are as happy to play a pawn down as the Frenchman, it was all one-way traffic as Caruana went on to end a perfect day with a third win.
A nice finish by Caruana as he wins the Rapid in Zagreb with a brilliant 15/18! #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/vc3hMrzmnA
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 12, 2024
There are now 18 rounds of blitz to go, but with only one point for a win in blitz Caruana's lead is significant.
Who Can Stop Caruana?
The good news for the "chasing pack" is that recent history hasn't favored the leaders after the rapid in Zagreb winning the tournament as a whole.
The bad news, perhaps, is that while Vachier-Lagrave managed to win in 2021, it was the absent GM Magnus Carlsen who, to no one's great surprise, took over in the most recent events. Can anyone rise to the challenge this year?
The closest player is GM Wesley So, who won one game and drew two on each of the three days of rapid chess. On the final day the win came against struggling local star GM Ivan Saric, who was winning at various points in a King's Indian Attack, but, as against Gukesh in the final round, lost his way in the complications.
So's laid-back style may make closing a three-point gap tough, while Aronian, four points off the pace, might fancy the challenge. After drawing So in the first round he scored that remarkable win over Gukesh we've already pointed out, before winning a brilliant game against Giri in the final round of the day. 36...Nxf2!! was a strong candidate for move of the day.
That's our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below:
Three of the players with the potential to win any blitz tournament find themselves a full five points off the lead and needing some help from Caruana: GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja. Nepomniachtchi made two draws and is only as close as he is because GM Vidit Gujrathi hallucinated a winning tactic. The tragedy was that it was in a position where he did have a move that was close-to-winning.
The post-mortem was lively.
Vidit realises he ruined and lost a great position!#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/pRLjRfJ4vo
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 12, 2024
Things would get worse from there for Vidit when he encountered some fans who wished him well in his upcoming title match...
A bedtime story for you guys, narrated by @viditchess. pic.twitter.com/gLPtVG9WzR
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) July 12, 2024
Earlier, however, he'd also had a huge slice of luck. Vidit was in fact the unifying factor in the players five points behind Caruana. He was impressively beaten by Vachier-Lagrave in the first game of the day, but then managed to pick up a first win by handing Firouzja a first defeat.
That was another minor chess tragedy, since the Frenchman was an accurate move away from forcing resignation.
If Firouzja had won that game and was three points behind you'd give him a good chance of catching Caruana, while now the challenge will be tougher. Still, you wouldn't want to miss the blitz, even if it means overlooking some marital commitments!
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 12, 2024
The live broadcast was hosted by IM Jovanka Houska, GM Yasser Seirawan, and GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko.
The 2024 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz is the third event on the 2024 Grand Chess Tour and runs July 10-14 in the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia. The 10 players first compete in a single rapid round-robin with a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, followed by a blitz double round-robin with a 5+2 time control.
Previous coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
