Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian are the names dominating the Grand Chess Tour tournament in rapid and blitz chess after three rounds in Warsaw. Each of these players has accumulated five points, making them the current leaders of the competition.
On Monday, the 23rd of May, on the second day of the competition, Duda maintained the position of co-leader. He first drew with Richard Rapport (Hungary), defeated Wojtaszek in the fifth round of the Polish derby, and at the end of the day, in a duel between the two leaders of the tournament in a difficult situation, he got a draw with the American Wesley So and both remained at the top of the classification.
The tournament began with a strong performance by the Polish representatives at the Polin Conference Center in Muranów on Sunday. Radosław Wojtaszek defeated the world’s top-ranked player, Magnus Carlsen from Norway, with the white pieces, while Jan-Krzysztof Duda won against Dutch player Anish Giri, repeating the color scheme from last year’s Warsaw tournament.
“This victory will definitely stay in my memory. Carlsen may not be the world champion anymore, but he has already made history in chess, so such success does not happen every day. As for the game itself, Magnus played riskily from the beginning and quickly got into trouble. I think I had a very good strategy for this match, meaning I tried to play actively, even aggressively, and look for attacking chances. It worked out. He played riskily, and that made it even easier for me to implement my strategy. I had a significant advantage from start to finish. Of course, as it is in rapid chess, the final moments played on seconds always make a difference. It was no different here, but I’m glad that I kept a cool head at that time and found a good continuation.”,
commented Grandmaster Wojtaszek.
In the subsequent rounds, Wojtaszek drew with Richard Rapport from Romania and Kirill Shevchenko from Ukraine. On the other hand, Duda won against Bogdan-Daniel Deac from Romania and drew with Carlsen.
“In a rapid and blitz tournament, you know that there will be a lot of ups and downs, such as the victory against Magnus, but also many mistakes, as it is impossible to continuously play well at that pace. Of course, I evaluate the first day very positively. These two draws were fierce and eventful games, a lot happened in those matches, but undoubtedly, the most important thing was today’s victory against Carlsen. I hope it’s not my last good result in this competition.”,
added the five-time Polish champion.
The tournament features the current top players in the world rankings, with five Grandmasters from the top six in FIDE’s rapid chess rankings.
“Of course, the tournament is very long, with 27 rounds, and you have to play many good games. The interest in the competition in the capital is also gratifying. Last year was already significant, but many people signaled to us that they had no idea how beautiful this tournament would be. Now everyone has been waiting for this event, and the fact that Carlsnem opens the starting list and we have the five best rapid chess players on it is an opportunity not to be missed for every chess and sports fan in Poland and abroad, because we also have foreign-language spectators.”,
emphasized Łukasz Turlej, FIDE Vice President.
The participants will play six more rounds of rapid chess, followed by the blitz chess competition on Wednesday and Thursday (nine rounds per day). The prize fund for the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland tournament amounts to $175,000.
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