Carlsen Captures Croatia Crown, Nepomniachtchi Surges Into Second
The SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2023 came to a close on Sunday with one clear winner, GM Magnus Carlsen. The former world champion kept up his formidable run and scored 6/9 on the second day of blitz to take his total to 26/36.
Not only did Carlsen claim the first prize of $40,000, but he also closed the gap between him and the blitz world number-one GM Alireza Firouzja after gaining 29 rating points. Firouzja's 13/18 in the blitz was also impressive, and for his efforts, he earned $25,000 for third place overall behind GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, who picked up $30,000 for second.
Congratulations to @MagnusCarlsen for clinching first place at #SuperUnitedRapidBlitzCroatia with 3 rounds to spare! His amazing perfect score on the first day of blitz will be remembered!#GrandChessTour #magnuscarlsen pic.twitter.com/8mLUEFmghq
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) July 9, 2023
Many consider GM Bobby Fischer's 19/22 at Herceg Novi in 1970 to be the greatest blitz performance of all time. After Carlsen's 9/9 start in the blitz, many began to ask the question, could he match or even eclipse the freakish event? That question was answered on Sunday as Carlsen came back down to Earth and finished with a 6/9, citing the fact that he was "completely spent" and proving that he is not, in fact, invincible.
For a spent player, Carlsen started strong, drawing against GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Caruana and scoring wins over GMs Ivan Saric, Viswanathan Anand, and Gukesh D. Arguably his greatest victory of the day was his 20-move demolition of Nepomniachtchi. Playing against the Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack, the Norwegian GM opted for aggression and was tactically perfect. When Nepomniachtchi's center began to crack open, the pressure became too much, and he erroneously planted his knight on e5.
After using less than a minute of his time, Carlsen pounced, offering a rook sacrifice (which was declined) and encouraging his opponent to resign just three moves later.
In round 16, Carlsen lost his first game of the blitz portion to Firouzja. While on tilt, he then seemed to throw away the following game against GM Richard Rapport.
Fortunately for Carlsen, his two-and-a-half-point buffer acquired on the first day of the blitz was enough for him to stave off a late run from Firouzja, who posted a score of 6.5/9 on day five but due to his mediocre results in the rapid event, couldn't challenge Carlsen for the lead.
The key game for Firouzja ended up being against Nepomniachtchi, one of his two losses of the day, as it cost him the chance to leapfrog his opponent and come second in the event. The game was an absolute masterclass by Nepomniachtchi and demonstrated exactly how to play aggressively against White with the Anglo-Grunfeld Defense.
Our Game of the Day has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.
Despite the two losses, Firouzja was able to sneak between Nepomniachtchi and Caruana on the leaderboard with a half-point separation on either side. The French representative also held onto the world number-one title in blitz chess, thanks to several decisive results falling his way at the end of the tournament, and leads Carlsen by nine rating points.
Though the podium placers sorted themselves out seamlessly on the final day, there were several other notable stories that emerged as a result of generational clashes.
Gukesh scored a second historic win against Anand on the final day in Croatia, symbolizing a passing of the torch from an Indian icon to the country's highest-rated prodigy who is rapidly ascending to the top of the world rankings. With the white pieces, the "Tiger of Madras" held his own throughout the Caro-Kann Defense middlegame but blundered on move 31 with 31.fxe4??, missing Gukesh's brilliant 31...Ng4!!, which ended the game almost immediately.
Gukesh was, in fact, the greatest beneficiary of rating points across both the rapid and blitz time controls, accruing a total of 51 rating points after the 27 games played. While the tops of India's blitz and rapid leaderboards are packed with talent including the likes of GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, and Vidit Gujrathi, Gukesh showed that he is a force in the quicker time controls as well as classical.
At the award presentation and press conference, Carlsen received the winner's trophy and, when interviewed by GM Cristian Chirila, announced that this was his "best blitz result ever" as he grinned ear to ear. Speaking about his 9/9 on the first day of blitz, Carlsen stated: "That achievement feels sweeter than almost any tournament win because it's something I've never done before and won't do again."
Given his 11/11 score in the most recent edition of Titled Tuesday, a rare feat that has been achieved by only a select few, it will be fascinating to see if Carlsen sets any ambitious blitz goals after his performance in Croatia.
As far as the Grand Chess Tour goes, a hiatus will now be taken until November, when the participants will compete in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz as well as the Sinquefield Cup to round out the tour. Caruana currently leads the overall tour standings with 20 points. His most dangerous challengers will be the 2022 winner Firouzja and GM Wesley So, who are sitting on 15.75 and 15.25 points respectively.
Amazingly, Carlsen has won both events that he has been invited to and would be sitting on top of the tour leaderboard if not for his wildcard status, which makes him ineligible. Regardless of the details, the Grand Chess Tour has provided some of the most exciting chess of the year, and the most interesting talking point will be which superstar players will receive the coveted wildcards for the Saint Louis Chess Club leg of the tour.
Standings - Blitz
Standings - Overall
All Games - Day 5
The SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia 2023 is the third leg of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT). Starting on July 3, the event featured Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand as wild cards along with Tour mainstays like Alireza Firouzja, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and more top-notch competitors who battled it out for their share of the $175,000 prize fund.
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