A last-round win by GM Fabiano Caruana over GM Wesley So, who had been leading, left five players in the lead after three rounds at the 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Poland, the first event on the 2026 Grand Chess Tour. Besides Caruana and So, the players on four points are GMs Hans Niemann, who outfoxed World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in a time scramble, Defending Champion GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who bounced back from a loss with two wins, and World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov, who remains undefeated and optimistic as ever.
GMs Alireza Firouzja, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Gukesh are a point behind (a win in rapid is worth two points), and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is on 1/6, after barely avoiding three losses on the first day. GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, in last with 0/6, wasn’t able to ward off that fate.
This is a flash report. Come back later to read the full article here!
Day two, featuring rapid rounds 3-6, starts Wednesday, May 6, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Half the field shares the lead, with 24 more games to play in the four remaining days.
Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland Standings After Day 1
GM Rafael Leitao’s analysis of the Game of the Day will be added soon.
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.
