This rapid & blitz event, part of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour, takes place in Zagreb, Croatia from July 6-11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Anish Giri are participating as full tour players; Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ivan Saric, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anton Korobov, and Jorden Van Foreest are participating as wildcards. Nine of the eleven players are participating in both events; unfortunately, Kasparov is only playing in the blitz, leaving Saric to take his place in the rapid.
Based on his performances in recent years, Kasparov is unlikely to do very well unless he will have spent more time preparing than usual. He's sure to have plenty of extremely interesting opening ideas and to play dynamically, but his pattern is to play too slowly and throw away his hard work and success in the first part of the game once he falls (far) behind his opponent on the clock and runs short of time. By the end of his events, he's typically in good form and has learned to manage the competitive situation, but it's a day or two too late. So I hope for the sake of the good chess he can produce, and for youngsters who think that he is some fossil from the past who cannot compete with today's players, that he puts in the kind of prep that's necessary to succeed.
It would be nice to see Anand play well, too, but my prediction is that it (the overall event) will be a three horse race between Nepo, MVL, and Giri. My prediction: Nepo.