GM Hans Niemann won the 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Poland, the biggest tournament win of his career so far, to earn the $50,000 first prize. Following up on last year’s winner, GM Vladimir Fedoseev, it’s the second year in a row that a wildcard wins the event.
Niemann finished all five days in the lead, but a loss against World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju seriously put the tournament win in jeopardy with two rounds left. Â GM Fabiano Caruana, with five wins in a row at the 11th hour, caught him at this point. But the champion won both of the last two games, against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, to win without any tiebreaks.
This is a flash report. Come back later to read the full article on this page!
We don’t have to wait long for the second Grand Chess Tour event; it starts next week in Bucharest! The first round of Super Chess Classic Romania 2026, a classical tournament, is on May 14 starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Niemann finished first, Caruana second, and GM Wesley So third.
Super Rapid & Blitz Poland Standings After Day 5
You can see the breakdown of prizes below. The total prize purse was $200,000.
GM Rafael Leitao’s analysis for the Game of the Day will be added soon.
The full tour schedule is outlined below.
The 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Poland is the first event on the 2026 Grand Chess Tour and runs May 5-9 in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. 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. The event has a $200,000 total prize fund.
Previous coverage:
