The Week in Chess

The first event in the Grand Chess Tour 2026 is the Super Rapid & Blitz Poland in Warsaw. This is a category 20 field. The players meet once in a rapid game and twice in the blitz.

Of major interest was the first meeting of Javokhir Sindarov and World Champion Gukesh in the rapid. It turned out to be a little disappointing. In a balanced position Sindarov sacrificed a piece and there was just never enough for it. There were three games on day 2 and Sindarov lost all three.

Hans Moke Niemann and Wesley So lead the rapid on 4.5/6 with the last day tomorrow followed by two days of blitz.

Round 6 of 9 standings: 1st= Niemann, So 4½pts, 3rd Fedoseev 4pts, 4th= Caruana, Gukesh, Duda 3pts, 7th MVL 2½pts 8th= Firouzja, Sindaro 2pts, 10th Wojtaszek 1½pts