But few saw what was coming in the first day of the blitz – Carlsen in beast mode! Carlsen completed day 1 of the blitz with 7,5/9, defeating Caruana, Firouzja, Pragg, Abdusattorov, and Gukesh along the way. The loss of Gukesh from Carlsen was not the only bad news for the Indian player, as he finished with only 1,5/9, losing seven of the nine games he played.

Calendar: Magnus Carlsen next tournaments / Wesley So next tournament / Gukesh next tournaments

Carlsen commented on Gukesh’s day for chess24: “The score is shocking… The good thing for Gukesh is it couldn’t really have gone any worse… Hopefully for his sake he can calm down and play with a different attitude tomorrow, because now he doesn’t really have anything to lose.” Duda also praised Carlsen, “I’m not sure I can do anything, to be honest, because it’s mostly about Magnus. Once he’s on a roll, he makes 9/9 or something, you can’t really do anything. I just have to focus on my chess!” referring to the Magnus Carlsen’s win at the Grenke Freestyle Chess 2025

Grand Chess Tour SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia

Former World Champion Magnus Carlsen surged into the lead with a powerful performance, bringing his total score to 17.5 points after nine blitz rounds. Meanwhile, World Champion Gukesh D, who led the field after the rapid portion, had a difficult day on the board, scoring just 1.5 out of 9 in blitz. The setback drops him to third place with 15.5 points, behind Carlsen and Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who now holds sole second place with 16.0 points. With nine more blitz rounds still to play, the title race remains open.

More: Grand Chess Tour Croatia 2025 LIVE rapid / Grand Chess Tour 2025 Rapid Zagreb information / Grand Chess Tour 2025 – Zagreb Blitz information / Pairings

The second place after the rapid is for Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who was the only one to score a full point against Gukesh and was chasing him in the standings until the very end of the rapid section. (stay tuned for updates) Scroll down for the full results

The blitz section starts tomorrow and you can follow it here. The winner of the whole SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz is the winner of the combined standings.

The SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia 2025 aka Grand Chess Tour Zagreb 2025, part of the Grand Chess Tour, is scheduled for June 30 to July 7, 2025, in Zagreb, Croatia, at The Westin Zagreb Hotel. This is the third leg of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour, marking its 10th anniversary, and features a 10-player round-robin tournament with a $175,000 prize fund. The Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb is among the Top tournaments in The Chess Calendar. It continues with the blitz section of the tournament, join us on Chessdom for the live coverage.

More: Grand Chess Tour Croatia 2025 LIVE rapid / Grand Chess Tour 2025 Rapid Zagreb information / Grand Chess Tour 2025 – Zagreb Blitz information / Pairings

Grand Chess Tour Croatia results

More: Grand Chess Tour Croatia 2025 LIVE rapid / Grand Chess Tour 2025 Rapid Zagreb information / Grand Chess Tour 2025 – Zagreb Blitz information / Pairings

The star of the day in the Grand Chess Tour was Gukesh, who started the day tied for first with Carlsen, Wesley So, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, won all his games in day 2: against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Fabiano Caruana, and Carlsen. This marked his fifth consecutive victory, giving him a two-point lead over second-placed Duda, who had 8 points. Carlsen, Wesley So, Ivan Saric, and Anish Giri followed with 6 points each.

The victory of Gukesh against Carlsen unleashed a storm of comments on social media, as previously Carlsen has stated that he does not expect much from the current World Champion in the fast paced Grand Chess Tour. Garry Kasparov went as far as saying, “Very important victory for Gukesh and a very important day. Now we can question Magnus’s domination. It is not just a second loss. It is a convincing loss.” Gukesh himself said, “Beating Magnus is always special”

Day 3 of the Grand Chess Tour Rapid is today, and you can follow it live here

Aryan Chopra, playing the Aktobe Open – Dvorkovich Memorial, has entered the Top 100 rating list on the live ratings for the first time in his career. Previously Aryan Chopra has reached the 101st position in the November 2024 rating list.

With Aryan Chopra in the list, this makes a total of 12 Indian chess players in FIDE World Top 100

Now live: Gukesh and Pragg at the Grand Chess Tour Croatia

#4 Praggnanandhaa R (also #1 junior / news)
#5 Arjun Erigaisi
#6 Gukesh D
#13 Viswanathan Anand
#24 Aravindh Chithambaram
#26 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
#30 Pentala Harikrishna
#37 Nihal Sarin
#45 Raunak Sadhwani
#76 Murali Karthikeyan
#94 Puranik Abhimanyu
#96 Aryan Chopra

This makes 12% of the FIDE World Top 100 composed of Indian players. And the number can still grow as Leon Mendonca, SL Narayanan, Pranav V, and Pranesh M are at the gates of entering top 100.

Gukesh Dommaraju (Gukesh calendar), Magnus Carlsen (Carlsen calendar), Hikaru Nakamura (Nakamura calendar), Arjun Erigaisi (Erigaisi calendar), Fabiano Caruana (Caruana calendar), Wei Yi (Yi calendar) are going to play a a double-round-robin format with special Norway Chess rules. Games are played with a time control of 120 minutes with an increment of 10 seconds starting from move 41. If a game is drawn, an Armageddon game is played to determine the winner. Norway Chess 2025 schedule and information

Live games from Norway Chess 2025 will be daily on Chessdom. For more tournament coverage sign up for the Chessdom Newsletter in the form below, it is free

Norway Chess 2025 live

Norway Chess 2025 video

Invited players: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Gukesh D, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wei Yi. Live games will be daily on Chessdom, while additional news can be found in the Chessdom Newsletter – you can sign up for free in the form below

New: If you are looking for more action by Carlsen and Nakamura, do not forget to check out the complete Magnus Carlsen calendar and the complete Hikaru Nakamura calendar, which are now integral parts of The Chessdom Chess Calendar

Chess.com Classic 2025

Play in knockout

Play in Swiss

The Chess.com Classic kicks off with the qualifiers for non-grandmasters on May 18 at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST. The Play-In starts a day later at the same time, with the Playoffs taking place from May 20 to May 23.

More: Nakamura vs Leela with knight odds / Carlsen wins Grenke with 9,0/9 / Replay Ding Liren vs Gukesh / Magnus Carlsen Clinches Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Title in Thrilling Final Against Hikaru Nakamura

Chess.com Classic Qualifier (May 18)

Starts: 8:00 PT / 11:00 ET / 17:00 CEST

Non-grandmaster titled players compete in a Swiss, with the top three making it to the Play-In.

• Open to all non-grandmaster titled players
• Players contest a nine-round Swiss
• Time control: 10+0
• The top three players are eligible to compete in the Play-In

Chess.com Classic Play-in (May 19)

Starts: 8:00 PT / 11:00 ET / 17:00 CEST

Qualified players join grandmasters to compete in two phases, Swiss and Match Play. The winner of the Swiss goes straight to the Playoffs. Players ranked second through 15th go to Match Play, with the winners reaching the Playoffs.

• Open to all grandmasters and the top three players from the Qualifier
• Time control: 10+0
• Players compete in a nine-round Swiss
• The top player from the Swiss goes straight to the Playoffs and selects their bracket position
• Players ranked second through 15th advance to Match Play
• Players ranked second through eighth choose their opponents
• The 14 players who compete in the Match Play phase contest a two-game match
• The winner of each Match Play match moves on to the Playoffs

Chess.com Classic Playoffs (May 20 – 23)

Starts: 8:15 PT / 11:15 ET / 17:15 CET

Eight invited players join the eight players who made it to the Playoffs to compete for top prize money and CCT Points, which may grant them a spot at the Esports World Cup.

• Eight invited players join the eight players who made it to the Playoffs
• Players contest a double-elimination bracket
• Winners Bracket matches consist of four games
• Losers Bracket matches consist of two games
• Grand Final match consists of four games
• Grand Final Reset, if necessary, consists of two games
• If the match ends in a tie, a bidding armageddon game with a base time of 10 minutes decides the winner

Divisions Cash Prizes

Freestyle Chess Paris 2025 boasts a strong field, including world’s N1 Magnus Carlsen and World Champion Gukesh. Even after the withdraw of Alireza Firouzja and the disappearance of Hans Nieman (see this, this, this, and this) Freestyle Paris remains one of the strongest events of 2025.

New: This month of April, Chessdom is launching a newsletter that you get DAILY to your mailbox for FREE. Signup with your mail in the form below

Live video broadcast from Paris Freestyle Chess 2025

Live games from Paris will be daily on Chessdom.com

Freestyle Chess Paris 2025 boasts a strong field, including world’s N1 Magnus Carlsen and World Champion Gukesh. Even after the withdraw of Alireza Firouzja and the disappearance of Hans Nieman (see this, this, this, and this) Freestyle Paris remains one of the strongest events of 2025.

Chessbase India – Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025 Day 1 with Gukesh, Arjun, Pragg, Vidit

More #TweetOftheDay: Viral dance by Gukesh / Movies in China and India to feature Ding Liren and Gukesh / Gukesh wants to say he became World Champion at 18 playing with his eyes closed / Ding Liren to upgrade his chair after R3 / GothamChess, “Chess prodigies are now 3 years old” / Dress up as Hans Niemann this Halloween: Chess Speaks for Itself / Elon Musk lashes out at Kasparov / All posts in #TweetOftheDay

More #TweetOftheDay: Viral dance by Gukesh / Movies in China and India to feature Ding Liren and Gukesh / Gukesh wants to say he became World Champion at 18 playing with his eyes closed / Ding Liren to upgrade his chair after R3 / GothamChess, “Chess prodigies are now 3 years old” / Dress up as Hans Niemann this Halloween: Chess Speaks for Itself / Elon Musk lashes out at Kasparov / All posts in #TweetOftheDay

Replay: Gukesh – Ding Liren game 1, 0-1 / Ding Liren vs Gukesh game 2, 1/2-1/2 / Gukesh – Ding Liren game 3, 1-0 / Ding Liren – Gukesh game 4, 1/2-1/2 / Gukesh – Ding Liren game, 5 1/2-1/2 / Ding Liren – Gukesh game 6, 1/2-1/2 / Gukesh – Ding Liren game 7, 1/2-1/2 / Ding Liren – Gukesh game 8, 1/2-1/2 / Gukesh – Ding Liren game 9 / Ding Liren – Gukesh game 10 / Gukesh – Ding Liren game 11 / Ding Liren – Gukesh game 12 / Gukesh – Ding Liren game 13 / Ding Liren- Gukesh game 14 All Gukesh – Ding Liren games live Parallel: Top Chess Engine Championship live