4 min readMumbaiMay 8, 2026 12:06 AM IST
Three days, nine games of rapid chess, three statement victories. That’s been the story of world champion D Gukesh’s foray in the rapid section of the Super Rapid and Blitz tournament in Warsaw, Poland. After three days of rapid chess, Gukesh heads into the final two days of the blitz event in a commendable tied-fourth place, thanks to his wins over Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Javokhir Sindarov and Fabiano Caruana across three days.
On each of the three days so far, Gukesh has put in a topsy-turvy performance. But the three wins he has racked up in Warsaw will boost his confidence in a year where he heads to Oslo next to face the likes of Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa at the Norway Chess tournament and then, at the end of the year, defends his world championship crown.
The third victory came on Thursday when Gukesh took down Caruana, who has been among the world’s top 3 players for the better part of the past half a decade. Playing with white pieces, Gukesh punished a blunder from Caruana on move 38, where a pawn push on the g file from the American led, in just a few moves, to Gukesh pocketing Fabi’s rook while giving up a knight in the exchange. Soon enough, Caruana resigned. For someone who has not converted many of his early advantages this year, Gukesh was clinical against Caruana, never giving his opponent a sniff after winning the exchange.
The victory over Caruana came after he lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and was held to a draw by Vladimir Fedoseev earlier in the day. After the day ended, Gukesh spoke about how he had started the day well but could not finish them off.
“Rapid and blitz are about rhythm! If you find it, you can crush opponents,” Gukesh told Saint Louis Chess Club in an interview. “My rapid event was inconsistent. Overall, I was playing well, but I missed a few chances. There were also games where I was in trouble and managed to save it. The tournament could have been better.”
The other statement victory from Gukesh had come on Wednesday, when the world champion had defeated the challenger to his crown, Sindarov. The Uzbek prodigy ended the rapid portion in tied seventh place, one full point behind Gukesh.
While enough has been written about Gukesh’s win over Sindarov – and his fist pump celebration afterwards – the first statement win for Gukesh was over Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda on day 1 of the event. Duda was a man who was hired as a second for Gukesh before the 2024 world championship to play training games in the faster time controls. As Gukesh’s long-time coach, Grzegorz Gajewski had told The Indian Express in an interview after the world championship, Duda – one of the world’s best blitz players – played over a hundred blitz games against Gukesh to sharpen his decision-making under time trouble.
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“Duda’s the player in the team! With a capital P. He’s not like most of us that are sitting there with engines. He’s like, wake him up in the middle of the night, give him a position, he’ll just play. And he can play for hours,” Gajewski had said.
“(But getting Duda on board), we wanted to improve Gukesh’s skills while playing on very low time, which could be useful during time trouble. We wanted to make sure that when it comes to time troubles, Gukesh will not collapse,” Gajewski had added.
Those lessons have clearly helped the 19-year-old from India, who was known for his prowess in classical chess, but over the last year has shown a marked improvement in his rapid chess skills. Blitz chess, though, could be another challenge altogether.
Asked how he would approach the blitz portion over the next two days, Gukesh quipped: “In blitz, all you have to do is play fast and pray. That’s going to be my strategy.”
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