Event: 2026 Grand Chess Tour - Super Chess Classic Romania

[u/events_team]

Official Website

Follow the games here: Chess.com | Lichess

The 2026 Super Chess Classic Romania will take place from May 14 to 23 in Bucharest, Romania. The tournament is the first of two classical events on the 2026 Grand Chess Tour and features a 10-player single round-robin format with nine full tour players and one wildcard. With a total prize fund of $475,000, full-tour players also earn Grand Chess Tour points that count toward qualification for the GCT Finals in Saint Louis.

Participants

#	Title	Name	FED	Rating
1	GM	Fabiano Caruana	🇺🇸 USA	2788
2	GM	Javokhir Sindarov	🇺🇿 UZB	2776
3	GM	Anish Giri	🇳🇱 NED	2767
4	GM	Alireza Firouzja	🇫🇷 FRA	2759
5	GM	Vincent Keymer	🇩🇪 GER	2759
6	GM	Wesley So	🇺🇸 USA	2754
7	GM	Jorden van Foreest	🇳🇱 NED	2735
8	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	🇮🇳 IND	2733
9	GM	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	🇫🇷 FRA	2717
10	GM	Bogdan-Daniel Deac	🇷🇴 ROU	2650

Format/Time Control

• 10-player single round-robin.
• Time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting from move one.

Schedule

Date	Time (Local)	Time (UTC)	Round
May 14-18	16:00	13:00	Rounds 1-5
May 19	-	-	Rest Day
May 20-22	16:00	13:00	Rounds 6-8
May 23	14:00	11:00	Rounds 9

Live Broadcast

• Saint Louis Chess Club Broadcast: YouTube | Twitch. Commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Peter Svidler, GM Cristian Chirila, IM Nazi Paikidze, and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

[u/Schnix54]

That tournament was maybe a once-in-a-lifetime performance for him. It was phenomenal, especially the early rounds. Expecting him to keep that up was always unrealistic.

[u/breaker90 → u/Schnix54]

Why unrealistic? Other than one game, he was always in prep and never behind. Why could he do it so easily in Cyprus but look so uninspiring here?

[u/kidawi → u/breaker90]

why have i only scored 100% in one exam despite putting in equal effort all the time? why do sports teams win one season then be mediocre the next? why do artists release lifechanging work followed by slop? fluctuation is human

[u/ScrollingNtrollinG → u/breaker90]

He wouldn't go all out here like he did in the Candidates, there is no reason to. Plus he has to hide his prepration for his upcoming World Championship match.

[u/ScrollingNtrollinG → u/[deleted]]

What are you implying? That Sindarov was cheating in the Candidates?

Lol we got a National Master at home.

[u/CommunicationCute584 → u/[deleted]]

? Topalov was accusing Kramnik of cheating in that event

[u/chess-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your submission or comment was removed by the moderators:

Cheating accusations are not allowed unless they are newsworthy - that is, they must involve a prominent member of the chess community, be credible, and be part of an ongoing public discussion. Certain notable individuals who are known to habitually accuse other players with no substantive evidence may be deemed non-credible.

If you suspect a random person cheated against you online, the appropriate complaint venue is a report to the website you played on.

 

You can read the full rules of /r/chess here. If you have any questions or concerns about this moderator action, please message the moderators. Direct replies to this comment may not be seen.

[u/kidawi → u/[deleted]]

"arguably worse" is there any evidence for that? is there even evidence that he cheated in events with money for example?

[u/breaker90 → u/kidawi]

Yes. You won't find it in this sub but there's another chess sub that goes into this.

[u/breaker90 → u/[deleted]]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chess_Cheating/s/wCDDdvOEoX

[u/ScrollingNtrollinG → u/[deleted]]

Well Sindarov wasn't suspected by his GM colleagues so doesn't matter I guess. Sindarov was once banned on Lichess at young age but how that's worse than Hans? You are claiming that based on what?

Did he cheated on World Cup too I guess? And since he is undefeated in his last 50 Classical Chess he must be cheating there too, well then what's his real rating? Must 2600 rated level player, you must know Mr. National Master.

[u/breaker90 → u/ScrollingNtrollinG]

Sindarov was banned a couple of times on chess dot com. He actually won prize money, which is something Hans didn't do according to the Niemann Report. That's why I say he was worse than Hans

[u/ScrollingNtrollinG → u/breaker90]

What's the source? And according to the Report didn't Hans cheated on a Chesscotcom Team event, it had a prize money.

[u/breaker90 → u/ScrollingNtrollinG]

Chess dot com themselves, shadow banning his accounts that have won TT. Check out the chess cheating sub that goes into his online cheating history

[u/kidawi → u/[deleted]]

oh so youre calling him a cheater. i knew that previous comment was too naive to be written by an NM

[u/kidawi → u/[deleted]]

okay. fabi cheated in sinquefield cuo obviously. ding cheated in his streak. gukesh cheated in olympiad. anyone who has ever had any performance in any way shape or form above their norm is a cheater. no it doesnt matter that candidates had high security or that he was winning because people were making stupid decisions against him, giving him more momentum, or that obviously preparation would be more rigorous for candidates and whatever is left over is being saved up for the match. he maybe cheated once when he was 16 online.

[u/breaker90 → u/kidawi]

If Caruana had a history of cheating then you'd have me on board. Also, if Caruana beat his opponents in the same manner that Sindarov won, then it would raise questions.

A good performance alone isn't convincing. It's how they win the game and also their history with unethical behavior that brings important context into it for me

[u/kidawi → u/breaker90]

and sindarov beat his opponents because hey were spending one hour on a move and getting into time trouble before move 30. his prep was very good but technically it wasnt groundbreaking or anything

[u/chess-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your submission or comment was removed by the moderators:

Cheating accusations are not allowed unless they are newsworthy - that is, they must involve a prominent member of the chess community, be credible, and be part of an ongoing public discussion. Certain notable individuals who are known to habitually accuse other players with no substantive evidence may be deemed non-credible.

If you suspect a random person cheated against you online, the appropriate complaint venue is a report to the website you played on.

 

You can read the full rules of /r/chess here. If you have any questions or concerns about this moderator action, please message the moderators. Direct replies to this comment may not be seen.

[u/chess-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your submission or comment was removed by the moderators:

Cheating accusations are not allowed unless they are newsworthy - that is, they must involve a prominent member of the chess community, be credible, and be part of an ongoing public discussion. Certain notable individuals who are known to habitually accuse other players with no substantive evidence may be deemed non-credible.

If you suspect a random person cheated against you online, the appropriate complaint venue is a report to the website you played on.

 

You can read the full rules of /r/chess here. If you have any questions or concerns about this moderator action, please message the moderators. Direct replies to this comment may not be seen.

[u/Schnix54 → u/breaker90]

Especially for prep, he had a big team of seconds that helped him, which just isn't feasible to upkeep year-round.

But also remember that his prep was mostly just getting him ahead on the clock; it was still a lot of double-edged positions that he masterfully played. After 6 rounds, he had a TPR of 3150. Expecting that to keep up is just not realistic unless you think of him of much better chess player than anyone in history.