GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu goes into the blitz section of the 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia as co-leader after winning all three games on day three—against GMs Ivan Saric, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, and Anish Giri—to catch GM Alireza Firouzja on 12 points. Firouzja made two draws and was put to the sword by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who joins GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave a point behind the leaders. GMs Gukesh Dommaraju and Vincent Keymer are tied for fifth place, another point back.
Day four, with nine rounds of blitz, starts Saturday, July 4, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 6:30 p.m. IST.
The final day of rapid chess saw Firouzja caught by the field, with six players within two points of each other at the top before the blitz begins.
Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia Standings After Rapid
Firouzja had wondered the day before whether to stay up late to watch Croatia vs. Portugal, which ended bitterly for local Croatian fans and adopted citizens!Â
Tragic, what a way to finish. All my sympathies with this phenomenal Croatian team. I also had my career attacked by a computer! ðŸ‡ðŸ‡·
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 3, 2026
If Firouzja did watch the game it might explain a sluggish third day of rapid chess, which saw his three-point lead fade away.
First he made an uneventful draw with GM Jorden van Foreest, and then he fell into a line that Abdusattorov explained he’d prepared for the previous game against Gukesh: “I think it’s a very tricky line, especially in a rapid and blitz time control, because White’s a pawn up and Black has to prove [compensation], and in the game I think he quickly got into trouble and I never let it slip. It was I think a great game!”Â
It was I think a great game!
—Nodirbek Abdusattorov on his win over Alireza Firouzja
Firouzja then drew his final rapid game in an interesting clash with Gukesh, who had started the day with a very narrow escape against Abdusattorov.
The Uzbek number-one pushed his c-pawn at just the wrong moment, seemingly overlooking a simple detail.
Abdusattorov ended the day with a win over the struggling Saric to move within a point of Firouzja, while it was Praggnanandhaa who seized the chance to catch the leader.
Praggnanandhaa had lost his last two games on day two, including what he called “a painful game” against Firouzja. He’d been pushing for most of the game, was doing well on the board and the clock, and even at the end could have saved a draw, but he confessed he had no right to expect more: “If you make three blunders in the whole tournament then you’re disappointed, but if you make them in one game then I probably had to lose that game, good or bad!”Â
Praggnanandhaa’s fortunes turned the next day, as he began his winning streak with what he admitted was “a really shaky game for me against Saric.” The Croatian number-one had a chance to win as late as move 34, but was ultimately ground down 40 moves later.
Praggnanandhaa then needed just 24 moves to beat Deac, whose habit of getting into time trouble right out of the opening came back to bite him on the last day of rapid chess, before pulling off the impressive feat of beating Giri with the black pieces in the final round of the day.
A knight then rook sacrifice on f2 sealed an encounter he described as “quite high quality for a rapid game.”
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
So Praggnanandhaa is co-leader, but he’s swimming with sharks when it comes to the approaching blitz. Firouzja is famed for his blitz chess, Abdusattorov is blitz world number-two after his performance in the FIDE World Blitz Team Championship in Hong Kong, while Vachier-Lagrave is the only unbeaten player in Zagreb.
The French former world blitz champion commented, “in rapid and blitz there’s going to be at least one day when I perform up to my old standards!”Â
How to watch?
The 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia is the third event on the 2026 Grand Chess Tour and runs July 1-5 in the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia. 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.
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