SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz: Gukesh, Vidit to lead the Indian Challenge

D Gukesh and Vidit Gujratihi will spearhead the Indian challenge in the forthcoming SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz a part of the Grand Chess Tour scheduled to happen in Zagreb from the 10th to 14th of July.

Gukesh who is set to meet Chinese Ding Liren in Singapore from November 20th to decide the next world champion will be looking forward to improving his performance in the faster versions of the game. He has repeatedly shown his prowess in the classical format but hasn’t been able to assert his Strength in the faster formats amongst the elites.

As there will be games under faster timer control in the case of tied results in the championship, Gukesh will be looking forward to replicating Caruna’s recent heroics a few days back in Bucharest when he won the 4-way tie-breaker against Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Firouza

Format

The tournament comprises nine rapid rounds and 18 blitz rounds. Each win in the rapid round is worth two points and blitz rounds are worth one point.

The rapid chess tournament is set to begin on 10 July. There will be three rounds of Rapid chess which will happen on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday followed by a double-round blitz tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

The field consists of 7 regular Grand Chess Tour players while 3 players will be invited as wildcard entrants. Magnus Carlsen had withdrawn from the tournament earlier citing personal reasons. Levon Aronian will now take his place.

While the odds are in favor of the top seed Caruna who will be looking forward to achieving back-to-back wins on the tour, all eyes will be on Vidit Gujrati who joined the tournament as a wild card entrant and is looking forward to replicating his recent stellar performance at the candidates tournament.