Caruana Wins With 5 Rounds To Spare, Matches Carlsen's Record Of 27 Points

GM Fabiano Caruana won the 2024 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia with five rounds to spare. Scoring a total of 27 points across the five days, he matched GM Magnus Carlsen's record from 2019 of most points earned in a Grand Chess Tour rapid and blitz event.

GMs Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja fought fiercely for the second spot in the remaining rounds but ended up scoring 23 points each for a large tie.

The GCT will conclude back home in St. Louis with the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz on August 10-17 and the Sinquefield Cup on August 17-31.

SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz Final Standings

• Caruana Scores 3.5 Points In 4 Rounds, Narrowly Misses New Record
• Heated Battle For 2nd Ends In Big Tie
• Kasparov Shares Views About Players, World Championship Match, GCT Finals Next Year

To say Caruana was a "clear favorite," going into the final day 4.5 points ahead of the field, is an understatement. At the award ceremony, he said: "The last day was mostly about chasing Magnus' record, which I almost managed, but I realized at some point it's just so difficult. I mean, to collect points when everyone wants to beat you is really tough."

The day started with a comical moment as GM Anish Giri arrived late, just after the ceremonial first moves had been made. He came right in time to look like he was the last guest, on his own board against GM Vidit Gujrathi:

That game, between friends, ended almost instantly in a draw, by the way. But let's jump into the rest of the action.

Caruana Scores 3.5 Points In 4 Rounds, Wins Outright

The tournament continued to play out like a dream for the tournament leader. He clinched it by winning his first three games and drawing the fourth. While he played out the rest of the rounds, he'd already won the $40,000 prize and 13 GCT points.

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (who celebrated his 34th birthday) suffered his fourth loss in a row (carried over from the previous day) in Sunday's first round, against Caruana. In the opening, Nepomniachtchi sacrificed his knight on g5 with the classic "fishing pole trap" theme, but when he blitzed out 22.e6??, Caruana realized this time the knight really was hanging.

After great opening preparation, Nepo throws away the game with 22.e6??. Suddenly, the knight on g5 actually can be taken!

"Ian blew it in a space of two seconds," says Jovanka Houska.https://t.co/kDoJPMoCVG#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/9tql3R8JB8

— chess24 (@chess24com) July 14, 2024

Once again with the black pieces (as he had started the tournament with White twice), Caruana won a full piece in the middlegame again, this time against GM Gukesh Dommaraju by Putting Pressure on the Pinned Piece (PP on the PP). 

Caruana's going to win a piece vs. Gukesh! It's White's turn, but there's nothing he can do to avoid 18...Qf6, piling up on the internal pin.https://t.co/WcuqjBvOBN#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/IJ5AhooJH6

— chess24 (@chess24com) July 14, 2024

Caruana was in trouble against Vidit, who achieved a winning position with the two knights against two bishops. But when the Indian GM struggled to find the right way to push the passed pawn, the position swung around and Caruana won the endgame with a great bishop and active king:

With a draw in Sunday's fourth round against Saric, Caruana officially won the tournament. As often happens, after he'd already clinched the title, he lost three games in the second half of the day—and scoring just a half-point more would have broken Carlsen's record.

Still, his final victory against GM Levon Aronian allowed him to match the record with 27 points. It was a crushing win in the Benoni Defense, which Caruana converted with great speed and accuracy. GM Rafael Leitao goes over the full game below.

Heated Battle For 2nd Ends In Big Tie

In a sense, the fight for second place was the greatest intrigue on the final day, as a handful of players were in the running to earn the $30,000 prize. By the time Caruana won the tournament, Firouzja and Vachier-Lagrave were on 19 points and So was on 18.5, and these three were the main contenders for the rest of the tournament.

Vachier-Lagrave's victory against Aronian in Sunday's fifth game was a close contender for Game of the Day. GM Garry Kasparov called the French number-two a "fish in water" when allowed to attack, and the black king was "easy prey for the white pieces" after 19.Rxe6!!, a move that the former world champion spotted instantly himself.

Firouzja was the first player to defeat Caruana, in the fifth round, but he needed a bit of luck in the final round to win on demand against GM Ivan Saric. The Croatian GM overlooked a basic tactic when he played 14.e5?. Can you follow in Firouzja's footsteps from Black's side?

Meanwhile, in the sixth round So played the swindle of the day against Vidit, winning a position that most people would consider to be somewhere between "dead lost" and "resignable" for Black.

Nepomniachtchi and Aronian funnily both played a Sicilian Wing Gambit in the same round (respectively, against Saric and against Giri), but their scores from the previous days left them too far behind. Nepomniachtchi also had the last laugh in his saga with So from the previous day:

Nepomniachtchi, who complained that So knocked over the pieces on the previous day, knocked over the pieces today before their game ended in a draw.

In the video feed, both players can be seen smiling during the "sandbox stuff, a childish moment" (Yasser).#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/1ZgrIJ7dRP

— chess24 (@chess24com) July 14, 2024

Gukesh, Giri, Vidit, and Saric rounded out the field at the bottom. It was a painful showing for the Indian challenger in the 2024 FIDE World Championship, but it's not nearly the end of the world. The match, four months away, will be played with a classical time control and not rapid and blitz (excluding tiebreaks).

Caruana leads the Grand Chess Tour ahead of the two final events.

Kasparov Shares Views About Players, World Championship Match, GCT Finals Next Year

Grand Chess Tour Founder Kasparov joined the broadcast to share his thoughts on several topics.

About Caruana's incredible achievement, he said: "He was definitely the dominant force in Bucharest and, also, to the surprise of many... now his dominance is absolute." About Firouzja, he saw great potential but, "his big weakness is complicated endgames... it remains one of his Achilles heels."

Kasparov admitted that rapid and blitz may become relevant in the upcoming world championship if it reaches tiebreaks, but that it's first and foremost a classical event. At the same time, he made a statement that received more backlash than agreement in the comments on X:

Kasparov on the 2024 FIDE World Championship Match:

"The world championship match is the match between the two strongest players. Definitely, that's not the case... it's an interesting match. I can hardly call it a world championship."#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/dYdZUYac1t

— chess24 (@chess24com) July 14, 2024

He also revealed that in 2025 the GCT Finals will feature the top four players, with the details of format and qualification still being worked out. This year, the GCT will conclude in St. Louis next month.

The 2024 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz is the third event of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour and ran July 10-14 in the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia. The 10 players first competed in a single rapid round-robin with a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move that was followed by a blitz double round-robin with a 5+2 time control.

Previous coverage:

• Day 4: Caruana Leads By 4.5 Points Ahead Of Final Day
• Day 3: Caruana Storms To Victory In Croatian Rapid, Takes 3-Point Lead Into Blitz
• Day 2: Caruana Leads In Zagreb As Gukesh Climbs Into Contention
• Day 1: Vachier-Lagrave Sole Leader After Day 1 Of Croatia Grand Chess Tour
• Caruana Wins Superbet Chess Classic Romania In Playoff After Dramatic Final Day
• Carlsen Wins Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland With 10-Game Winning Streak