Firouzja opened the 2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia in commanding form. The Iranian grandmaster bounced back from an earlier bullet loss to Nihal Sarin by dismantling Ivan Saric and Bogdan-Daniel Deac in rapid play. His 5/6 score gave him sole first place, a full point clear of the field.
The tournament format mixes rapid and blitz games across multiple days, and Firouzja already looks like the player to beat. He's playing the kind of decisive chess that separates winners from the rest at these elite speed events. Against top opposition like Saric and Deac, you don't post that kind of result by accident.
Praggnanandaa sits just behind in the standings, which means we're setting up for a genuine title race. Firouzja has momentum. Praggnanandaa has consistency. Both know how to handle the pressure of a dense tournament schedule where fatigue compounds mistakes.
The Croatia event draws the world's elite rapid and blitz specialists. These aren't the pretenders you see in online tournaments. The players competing here have spent years mastering time management and pattern recognition at speeds where calculation becomes impossible. Firouzja's early lead matters because he's proven he can sustain this pace. The real test comes in the rounds ahead, when fatigue sets in and opponents adjust their preparation.