GM Hans Niemann leads the 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Poland after nine rounds of rapid chess, with 18 rounds of blitz to come in the next two days. A win against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in round eight, accompanied by two draws, was enough to break ahead of his co-leader GM Wesley So, who made three draws.
The tournament looks, so far, to be a race between Niemann, So, and Fedoseev. The closest trailers are GMs Fabiano Caruana, Duda, and Gukesh Dommaraju, a full four points behind the tournament leader. Even further behind are GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Javokhir Sindarov, Alireza Firouzja, and Radoslaw Wojtaszek.
This is a flash report. The full article will be added to this page soon!
Day four, featuring blitz rounds 1-9, starts Friday, May 8, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Niemann is the sole leader, and in the next two days players will receive just 1 point per win—not the 2 they received in rapid.
Super Rapid & Blitz Poland Standings After Day 3
GM Rafael Leitao’s analysis will be added later.
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.
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