Top grandmasters compete at Zagreb Chess Tour
The opening ceremony of the "SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia" Grand Chess Tour tournament was held at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, ahead of the competition taking place in Zagreb from 2 to 6 July.
The tournament, being held in Zagreb for the sixth time, features a prize fund of 175,000 US dollars and will host six of the world's top ten chess players according to the FIDE ranking system, including the current world number one, Magnus Carlsen. Croatian grandmaster Ivan Šarić will also be competing, CE Report quotes HINA.
The Zagreb tournament is part of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour series, which includes five events - in Warsaw, Bucharest, Zagreb, Saint Louis, and São Paulo.
Participants in the tournament include Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Dommaraju Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and the highest-ranked Croatian player, Ivan Šarić.
The tournament also has a humanitarian aspect, as all ticket sale proceeds will be donated to a charity or institution in need.
At the opening ceremony, the organisers, led by tournament ambassador and chess legend Garry Kasparov, presented this year's tournament and players and announced the pairings for the first round. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković attended the ceremony and officially opened the tournament by making the first move against Carlsen.
