Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Caruana Goes 8/9 on Day 1 of the Blitz; Anand Still Leads Overall

With one exception, the players who finished in the top six of the rapid of the Superbet Rapid & Blitz were in the top six of today's blitz, the first of a double-round robin. But within that top six, the order was topsy turvy, far closer to the reverse than a repetition of the original order. To refresh your memory, here was the top six after the rapid:

1. Anand 14 (of 18)
2. Rapport 13
3. Duda 12
4. So 11
5. Aronian 10
6. Caruana 9

And here are the scores from the first blitz round-robin:

1. Caruana 8(!!) out of 9
2. Aronian 7
3. Duda 5.5
4-5. Anand, So 5
6. Wojtaszek 4.5
7-8. Gavrilescu, Rapport 3.5
9. Shevchenko 2.5
10. Korobov 1

Here then are the overall standings for the top six:

1. Anand 19
2. Duda 17.5
3-4. Caruana, Aronian 17
5. Rapport 16.5
6. So 16

It was a great performance by both Caruana and Aronian - so good, in fact, that they are now in third and second on the blitz rating list, just ahead of Magnus Carlsen and only behind Hikaru Nakamura.

On the previous days, I looked through all of the games, but was otherwise occupied today. Readers, if any games especially caught your attention, please mention the game(s) in the comments - thanks!