India's D Gukesh struggled to score the wins on Saturday as he secured just 2.5 points in the first nine rounds of the blitz section on Day 4 of the 2024 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz chess tournament in Croatia. Gukesh could manage only two wins, a draw and lost six out of the nine games on the opening day of the blitz portion.
His compatriot Vidit Gujrathi fared slightly better, securing 3.5 points in the first nine blitz matches after two wins and three draws.
In the overall standings, Gukesh remains in seventh spot with a total of 11.5 points and Vidit is ninth with 7.5 points to his name.
The first three days of the tournament featured nine round rapid and the last two days will see 18 rounds of blitz matches. The last nine rounds in blitz will be played on Sunday, the last day of the tournament.
In the rapid, each win gives two points while a victory in a blitz match gives just a point.
Fabiano Caruana is 4.5 points ahead of Wesley So before the last day of #superunitedrapidblitzcroatia. Can anyone stop Fabiano?�� #grandchesstour pic.twitter.com/OTxsxM8Uun
- Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) July 13, 2024
Overall, USA's Fabiano Caruana remains on top spot with a score of 21.0 followed by his Wesly So who is tied for the second spot with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at 16.5 points. The fourth spot is occupied by Alireza Firouzja with 16 points.
Gukesh's 2.5 points in the blitz section was the lowest among all the 10 participants.
Both Gukesh and Vidit need a much better final day to improve their overall rankings, however, even big wins might still not be enough to secure a spot in the top three for both the players.