GM Alireza Firouzja has won the 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia after beating GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a nerve-wracking armageddon game. Such a finale looked unlikely when Firouzja started the day with a three-point lead after scoring 8/9 on day one of the blitz, but he began day two with a disastrous 2/7. Only winning a lost position against GM Gukesh Dommaraju saved him from needing to beat Abdusattorov in the final round. That game was drawn, as were the two tense tiebreak games that followed, before Firouzja ultimately took the title with another draw, this time with the black pieces in armageddon.
Abdusattorov briefly took the sole lead, but Firouzja ultimately tied for first with 23.5 points before winning the playoff. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu caught GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in third place, 1.5 points ahead of GM Vincent Keymer, the day’s top scorer.
Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia Final Standings
Abdusattorov would have shared 11 Grand Chess Tour points with Firouzja, but was playing in Croatia as a wildcard.
Croatia Grand Chess Tour Points & Prize Money
Firouzja put himself right in contention for a top-four finish and a place in the GCT Finals, but he’s played one event more than GMs Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, and Wesley So.
Grand Chess Tour Standings After Croatia
Abdusattorov Overtakes Firouzja
“With a little bit of help and a little bit of luck, I can fight for first place tomorrow!” Abdusattorov had announced the day before, but even he couldn’t have imagined that neutralizing Firouzja’s three-point lead would be so smooth. It all began in the first round of the day, when Vachier-Lagrave beat Firouzja in a Najdorf Sicilian, while Abdusattorov overcame Gukesh in what should have been an equal endgame.
Abdusattorov would go on to score an unbeaten 6.5/9, showing brilliant endgame technique and also scoring some crushing wins, for instance against GM Ivan Saric.
For Firouzja, meanwhile, the final day would prove an ordeal. Although he won a very shaky second game, against Saric, he was put to the sword by Keymer in the very next game. 26.Nh8! wasn’t even the best move in the position, but summed up the game.
Keymer top-scored with 7/9, though his late run was enough for just fifth place, while Firouzja began the final day with a shocking 2/7. Everything that could go wrong did, with Firouzja suffering a painful loss to GM Jorden van Foreest at the worst possible moment, just after being caught by Abdusattorov. He was winning until 44…Bf4? overlooked the Dutchman’s plan. Â
That gave Abdusattorov a half-point lead with two rounds to go, and you can understand why Firouzja said afterward, “Today is the worst blitz day of my life.”
Today is the worst blitz day of my life.
—Alireza Firouzja
Firouzja Forces Tiebreaks
Everything was going wrong for Firouzja, and when Abdusattorov took the lead, the race felt all but over. In the penultimate round, Firouzja would face Gukesh, who had had a mixed day…
Dramatic time scramble! Gukesh loses on time, and hometown hero Ivan Šarić seizes the opportunity to score a memorable victory! #grandchesstour #gukeshd #chess pic.twitter.com/Wj0DwBTJXX
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) July 5, 2026
…but went into the game on a run of three wins in a row.Â
Gukesh carried that form into the clash with Firouzja, building up a completely winning position, but it wasn’t over. The French number-one later commented: “My most proud game was against Gukesh. I had to win that game to force the tiebreaks, so that game was really important, and I was happy that I managed to find some tricks!”
I was happy that I managed to find some tricks!
—Alireza Firouzja on his win over Gukesh Dommaraju
The tricks were of a quality that recalled the Firouzja we’d seen a day earlier.
An incredible turnaround as Firouzja beats Gukesh from a seemingly hopeless position and goes into the final-round clash with Abdusattorov level on points & with the white pieces! https://t.co/xH1xkRtmTV#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/B2oEzksjuk
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 5, 2026
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov annotates below.
That meant that instead of trailing and needing to win on demand, Firouzja went into the final-round clash with Abdusattorov level.
Firouzja also had the white pieces, and when he spotted the surprising 22.Ra5!, preparing Rb5 and picking up the b-pawn, it looked like we might see Firouzja win a second game in a row to clinch the title.
In the end, however, he misplayed a winning position. Â
That meant that the tournament had ended with Firouzja and Abdusattorov tied for first, while third place was shared between Praggnanandhaa, who had scored 6/9 for the day, and Vachier-Lagrave (4.5/9). The third-place battle turned on the penultimate round, when Praggnanandhaa won their head-to-head clash from a lost position.
There was no playoff for third place, but there was for first. Curiously, after two days of five-minute chess, the time control was suddenly extended to two games of 8+3, a compromise between the rapid and blitz time controls.
Firouzja Squeezes Out Win In Playoff
The play in the two eight-minute games was high quality, with neither Firouzja nor Abdusattorov slipping below 98 percent accuracy. The first game saw the most promising imbalance, with Firouzja going for an exchange sac, though never getting anything tangible.
That meant the title came down to an armageddon game, with Firouzja getting the black pieces and needing only a draw, though Abdusattorov got an extra minute on his clock.
The battle that followed was fantastic, with Abdusattorov building up a two-minute lead on the clock and, briefly, getting a chance to clinch victory after 21…Ne4?. The Uzbek star rushed with 22.Nxf6+?, when 22.Ne3! or 22.Nh6+ was both winning. After that miss, it was all about the clock.
When you try to flag Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon! #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/FxFtmidDfO
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 5, 2026
Firouzja had won the title, even if it had been massively tougher than he could have imagined when the day began. As he put it, “I had smoother wins before in the Grand Chess Tour, but this one I’ll take anyway!”
The Tour returns in early August with the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz followed, shortly after, by the Sinquefield Cup and then the Tour Finals.Â
How to rewatch?
The 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia was the third event on the 2026 Grand Chess Tour and ran July 1-5 in the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia. The 10 players competed 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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