GM Magnus Carlsen started day four of the 2025 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz trailing World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju by four points but ended the day two points ahead after scoring 7.5/9 while Gukesh crashed to 1.5/9. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda is second, 1.5 points behind Carlsen, while GM Wesley So had the second best day of blitz, scoring 6.5/9 and narrowly missing a win over the leader.
The final day’s action starts one hour early on Saturday, July 6, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia Standings After Day 4
Carlsen’s six-point swing against Gukesh saw him take the sole lead before the final day, with Duda second.
Carlsen Takes Over: “Not Something I Could Have Dreamed Of”
“It’s been a good day, and of course the score, especially relative to others, is not something I could have dreamed of,” said Carlsen, after once again demonstrating his formidable blitz skills. It wasn’t quite the 9/9 we’d seen on the first day of blitz in Zagreb in 2023, but it was close and left the Norwegian with a blitz live rating of 2894.5, 56 points ahead of second-placed GM Hikaru Nakamura.
Carlsen confessed his score was perhaps slightly more than his play had deserved, and said he’d been struggling in the opening draw against GM Anish Giri and then for most of the second-round game against GM Alireza Firouzja. In fact, he noted he’d forgotten about the clock, only to realize at one point that he had just four seconds in a middlegame position. He avoided that pitfall and “kind of managed to hustle, and that’s when I felt this could actually be a good day.”
On move 41, Firouzja could have forced a draw by capturing on e3, but he captured on e5 instead and was suddenly lost.
“That was huge!” said Carlsen of following that win against one of his biggest rivals by taking down another, GM Fabiano Caruana, in what was a big fight right out of the opening.
Then it was the clash we were all again waiting for, against Gukesh, who could potentially make it three wins in a row against his great predecessor. It wasn’t to be, however, as Carlsen scored an almost effortless win. He was dismissive after the game…
“The game itself was kind of rubbish. I was really just playing old man’s chess, trying to play without tactics whatsoever. It worked out well; can’t complain.”@MagnusCarlsen after beating Gukesh in the blitz. pic.twitter.com/gzhgeud7JR
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) July 5, 2025
…but it had been full of fast, accurate, and far from obvious decisions from the world number-one. That’s our Game of the Day, which is analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Carlsen also scored smooth wins over GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Ivan Saric, but in other games there was drama. The one slip came against Duda, when Carlsen could have taken a 1.5-point lead but blundered in a winning position with 39…Qxf5?, forgetting the queen was preventing 40.Bc5!, White’s one saving trick.
Duda escaped with a draw, but Carlsen had no complaints, since elsewhere luck had been on his side. He confessed, “I still feel like I’m getting a bit too nervous, playing purely by instinct a lot in time scrambles, and that could have been punished, I think quite severely, in a couple of games.”
The careless 46…e5? against So should have led to defeat, but So overlooked a fortress 20 moves later and had to take a draw.
The other game Carlsen had in mind was a wild time scramble against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
Carlsen had been pressing all game but lost control in a situation where both players were down to five seconds (plus a two-second increment added each move). Praggnanandhaa was close to winning, but it was tricky, and when he allowed 48…b4!, the advantage was gone, and it was all about the world number-one setting traps. His instincts worked out just fine!
The analysis is in slow motion, while this is how it looked at full speed!
Carlsen beats Praggnanandhaa from a lost position in the day’s craziest time scramble! https://t.co/SJACYXzjvk pic.twitter.com/NDq9mNslv3
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 5, 2025
Things couldn’t have gone better for Carlsen, since the leader at the start of the day collapsed.
Gukesh Has A Day To Forget
Gukesh had been brilliant in rapid chess, with a five-game winning streak catapulting him into the sole lead. By the end of the 25-minute action, he was four points ahead of Carlsen and three points ahead of Duda. In five-minute blitz, however, things would fall apart. Gukesh began with a five-game losing streak and scraped together just 1.5/9 points, putting him at the bottom of the pack.
Scores On Day 1 Of Blitz
Perhaps the first game set the tone for the day. Gukesh was under heavy pressure against So, but had an objectively drawn position until on move 72 he grabbed So’s h-pawn. The world champion spotted too late it was a mistake, and So gestured that the move still had to be made before going on to win.
Gukesh touches So’s pawn — realizes capturing it will be a blunder — but So points out it’s too late to change the move, and Wesley wins! https://t.co/e5pHgw8dZB pic.twitter.com/Qr61Asgt00
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 5, 2025
A series of heavy losses followed for Gukesh, including seeming to freeze in round five against Saric in what had been a good position. The local star went on to score his first win in 14 games.
The only glimmers of light were a hard-fought 100-move draw against Giri in round six, and then a single win, against Caruana, who blundered his queen in a time scramble.
Gukesh’s final position in the final round of the day was a better summary of how things had gone, however, with Praggnanandhaa beating his Indian colleague in crushing style.
It was a day when it was hard to take positives, though one is that Gukesh is in third place and just two points behind Carlsen, who is a wildcard and not competing with the Grand Chess Tour regulars. Carlsen suggested another upside of a “shocking” score:
The good thing for him is it couldn’t really have gone any worse. It’s never easy to have an overnight lead in these tournaments. Four points to me and three points to Duda is a lot, but it doesn’t feel like that much when you don’t have the experience. So far it’s been poor, but hopefully for his sake he can calm down and play with a different attitude tomorrow, because now he doesn’t have anything to lose.
Now he doesn’t have anything to lose.
—Carlsen on Gukesh
Gukesh’s woes have also brought chances for other players.
Duda, So Within Striking Distance
The second top scorer on the first day of blitz was So, and as we’ve seen, it could have been better. If he’d beaten Carlsen, they would have finished equal, on 7/9, all other things being equal, while So’s one loss of the day was an unfortunate oversight. 18…Qe5? looked like a clever move but ran into 19.Qc1! from Praggnanandhaa, and suddenly the knights on c6 and h6 are both under attack.
So’s most important win was perhaps the complete turnaround against Firouzja, who was on the brink of a +4 score for the day, putting him right in contention for the top spots. Instead the French star lost that game, and the next to Abdusattorov, to end the day 4.5 points adrift of first place.
So described it as “a very, very good day, considering also that my last day in rapid was just horrible, where I couldn’t see anything.” The U.S. star credited “drinking lots of fluids” and “good time management” for the turnaround.
“It’s a very fun event if you’re winning.” 😅
Wesley So after day 1 of the blitz. pic.twitter.com/NQMomV6KQx
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) July 5, 2025
One player very much in contention for first is two-time world blitz championship runner-up Duda, who suffered his first loss of the whole tournament in the first round of blitz, but recovered to score 5/9 and end the day 1.5 points behind Carlsen.
The Polish star’s win over Praggnanandhaa was perhaps his most impressive, even if Duda summed up, “I think he rushed a bit with this attack—if I’m not checkmated, I win, which is basically what happened!”
Duda had his doubts about whether Carlsen can be caught…
Duda on the race vs. Carlsen: “I’m not sure I can do anything, to be honest, because it’s mostly about Magnus. Once he’s on a roll, he makes 9/9 or something, you can’t really do anything. I just have to focus on my chess!” pic.twitter.com/270dUrnkxg
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 5, 2025
…but as we’ve seen, all it takes is for the leader to have one off day for everything to change. Don’t miss the last day’s action, which starts one hour earlier than usual on Sunday.
How to watch?
The 2025 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz is the third event on the 2025 Grand Chess Tour and runs July 2-6 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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