St Louis, Jun 28 (IANS): After thrilling wins by GM Fabiano Caruana and five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the first two legs of the Grand Chess Tour, the next tour stop will be in Zagreb, Croatia for SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz, set to take place from July 4-9.

SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia will mark the midway point of the Grand Chess Tour and will feature 175,000 dollar in prizes.

Five full-tour and five wildcard players will compete over nine rounds of rapid and 18 rounds of blitz to see who comes out on top. The field includes Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Viswanathan Anand, Richard Rapport, Dommaraju Gukesh, Ivan Saric, Constantin Lupulescu.

"The Grand Chess Tour features the world’s best chess players and this year's competition has been no exception thus far," Grand Chess Tour Executive Director Michael Khodarkovsky was quoted as saying in a media release.

"We are eager to see which player will take top honors when they face off over the board in Croatia in another fast paced Rapid & Blitz event," he added.

Grandmaster Wesley So from the United States is currently at the top of 2023 Grand Chess Tour leaderboard, followed by Poland’s GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and GM Fabiano Caruana, also from the United States.

Notably, the Grand Chess Tour is a leading global circuit of international chess tournaments featuring the world’s best players competing for 1.4 million dollars in cash throughout the 2023 season.

The tour will conclude in America's chess capital at the Saint Louis Chess Club with the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and the Sinquefield Cup, taking place in Fall 2023.

"We are happy to welcome back to the Grand Chess Tour former World Champions Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand.They will be challenged by young and rising stars like Firouzja and Gukesh, which promises us thrilling and exciting competition in Zagreb," said Khodarkovsky.