America’s Hans Mocke Niemann has won the title of ‘Super Rapid and Blitz 2026’. Whereas world champion D Gukesh had to be content with sixth place. This tournament is part of the ‘Grand Chess Tour’. Gukesh finished his campaign with 17 points out of 36 possible points. In this tournament, players played 9 rapid and 18 blitz games. Two points were awarded for winning each rapid bet and one point for each blitz bet won.
Gukesh scored nine points in rapid and eight points in blitz. Things could have been worse but Gukesh made a comeback by defeating Poland’s Duda Yan-Christoph in the last round. Gukesh had withdrawn from the main tournaments of the Grand Chess Tour and this year he will play only rapid and blitz formats. Apart from the Norwegian Chess Tournament, the youngest World Champion Gukesh is also going to play the World Championship match against America’s Javokhir Sindarov later this year.
Gukesh got three wins on the last day. He defeated Wesley So, Niemann and Duda of America. He suffered four defeats, including a defeat against Sindarov. Sindarov won the three-match individual clash with Gukesh by a 2-1 margin. Niemann won the last two rounds and finished the tournament with a total of 22.5 points. Apart from the trophy, he also got the first prize of 50 thousand dollars.
In the final round, Niemann defeated Radosław Wojtaszek of Poland. American Fabiano Caruana finished second with 22 points, one point more than Wesley. Slovenia’s Vladimir Fedoseev finished fourth with 18 points, while France’s Alireza Firouzja finished fifth. The Grand Chess Tour caravan will now move towards Romania’s capital Bucharest for the ‘Super Classic’ tournament and R Praggnanandhaa will be the only player from India to participate in this tournament.
