4/11/2025 – The quarterfinals of the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam concluded on Thursday, with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Vincent Keymer advancing to the semifinals. While Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura secured their places through wins in the classical games, Keymer needed tiebreaks to overcome Ian Nepomniachtchi. The German GM is now the only player from the younger generation left in the tournament. The upcoming semifinal matchups are Carlsen v. Caruana and Keymer v. Nakamura. | Photo: Stev Bonhage
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Only Keymer wins in tiebreaks
The quarterfinal stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Paris concluded on Thursday, with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Vincent Keymer securing places in the semifinals. While three matches were decided in classical play, the final spot was determined via a rapid tie-break.
Magnus Carlsen, the only player to win his first classical game on Wednesday, safely held a draw in the return game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, confirming his passage to the final four. Carlsen never allowed any serious counterplay, and the draw ensured his smooth progression to the next round.
Fabiano Caruana also avoided tiebreaks. After drawing the first game of his match against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the US grandmaster won the second to secure his place in the semifinals.
Caruana v. Vachier-Lagrave
Already in a difficult position, MVL decided to give up the exchange by playing 24...Bf6 here - Caruana needed only eight more moves to force the Frenchman's resignation
Top trainers strongly recommend regular study of well-explained classical games to improve your understanding of chess in the long term. 33 modern classics are explained in details on this video course.
Fabiano Caruana defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Hikaru Nakamura followed a similar path, defeating Arjun Erigaisi in their second classical encounter after a draw in the first, thereby also reaching the semifinals without the need for additional games.
The most closely contested match was between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vincent Keymer, which remained deadlocked after both classical games ended in draws. In the first tiebreak game, Keymer, playing Black, created strong pressure against the white king and converted his advantage into a win. He then held the second game to a draw in a balanced rook endgame, thereby advancing to the semifinals.
Keymer, the only semifinalist from the younger generation, will now face Hikaru Nakamura, while Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are set for a rematch of their 2018 World Championship encounter.
From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!
Ian Nepomniachtchi was taken down by Vincent Keymer | Photo: Stev Bonhage
In the placement matches, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated his compatriot Vidit Gujrathi 1½–½, while Richard Rapport beat reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju by the same score. Pragg and Rapport will now play a match for 9th place.
Vidit and Gukesh are now eliminated from the event, as they finished in shared 11th place.
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
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2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12090 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 874 are annotated.
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