SuperUnited Croatia: Caruana goes into blitz section with 3-point lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
7/13/2024 – Fabiano Caruana continues to impress at the SuperUnited Tournament in Croatia. The US star entered the third day of action as the sole leader and scored three consecutive wins to win the rapid section and go into the final two days of blitz with a 3-point lead over Wesley So. The remaining US representative, Levon Aronian, stands in sole third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

The Delayed Zagreb

Fabiano Caruana seems to particularly enjoy participating in Grand Chess Tour events. After convincingly winning the 2023 series, he won the Superbet Classic in Romania and is now the clear leader at the SuperUnited Tournament in Zagreb (Caruana did not participate in this year’s inaugural tournament in Warsaw).

The former World Championship challenger collected 3 wins and 3 draws on the first two days of action in Croatia, and impressively ended his strong run in the rapid section of the event with 3 consecutive wins. Caruana thus extended his lead to 3 points before entering the final two days of play, when 18 rounds of blitz will decide the winner of the tour’s third event.

On Friday, Caruana grabbed wins over Gukesh, Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. In his game against Giri, the tournament leader even got to play a novelty on the seventh move. Out of a Sicilian Defence, Caruana surprised his opponent with 7.g3, and during a post-game interview with podcast co-host Cristian Chirila, decided to christen the variation as the “Delayed Zagreb”.

Caruana ended the 9 rounds of rapid with 15 points (wins are worth 2 points in the rapid). Standing second and third are the two remaining US representatives, Wesley So and Levon Aronian respectively. So remains undefeated with 12 points, while Aronian has already lost twice in Zagreb, but has compensated for his losses by scoring 4 wins — going into the blitz, Aronian has 11 points to his name.

Ivan Saric, Wesley So

Wesley So showed great tactical skills to beat Ivan Saric with the black pieces in round 8 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Levon Aronian, Dommaraju Gukesh

Levon Aronian beat the 2024 World Championship challenger on Friday | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Caruana 1 - 0 Giri

Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Final standings - Rapid (win = 2 pts, draw = 1 pt)

Loading Table...

All games

Loading...
New ...
Open...
Share...
Layout...
Flip Board
Settings
MoveNResultEloPlayers
Replay and check the LiveBook here
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.

Links


Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.