4/13/2025 – Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura reached the final of the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam after winning their respective semifinal matches against Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer. Both matches were decided without the need for tiebreaks, with Carlsen and Nakamura each scoring 1½–½. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave forced tiebreaks in their placement matches and advanced to the battle for fifth place. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu secured ninth place by defeating Richard Rapport. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
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Carlsen beats Caruana, Naka beats Keymer
The final of the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam is set to feature the world’s top two players, as Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura both won their semifinal matches on Saturday to book their place in Sunday's final.
Magnus Carlsen defeated Fabiano Caruana 1½–½ in their match. The deciding encounter saw Carlsen dominate the early middlegame, gaining space and initiative. Caruana spent over half an hour considering his response to 11.h4 and eventually opted for the bold 11...Qb8!? - a move which initially looked questionable but soon showed deep positional intent.
Carlsen v. Caruana
Despite navigating his way into a complex endgame, Caruana struggled with time pressure, and Carlsen capitalised with a strong sequence starting with 25.c5. The game ended after 44 moves with Carlsen securing the win and the match.
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Magnus Carlsen v. Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Hikaru Nakamura also progressed with a 1½–½ score, ending Vincent Keymer's unbeaten classical run in freestyle chess. Keymer opened with the unusual 1.d4 d5 2.b3, a line which Nakamura admitted had concerned his colleagues during earlier preparation.
Keymer v. Nakamura
While the computer initially approved of Keymer's handling of the position, Nakamura gradually took control. A key moment came with 14...0-0-0, repositioning his king to safety and shifting the momentum firmly in his favour.
Black castled long here, with the king transferring to c8 and the f8-rook to d8
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Keymer was unable to recover, and Naka claimed the full point to secure his place in the final.
In the placement matches, Arjun Erigaisi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave both won their second games to level their matches and force tie-breaks. Arjun's win, hailed by commentators as the standout performance of the day, helped carry that momentum into the rapid games, where both players advanced to the match for fifth place.
Elsewhere, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated Richard Rapport to take ninth place in the overall standings.
The final day of the tournament will feature Carlsen v. Nakamura for the title, Caruana v. Keymer in the third-place match, and Arjun v. Vachier-Lagrave for fifth.
When a flank attack should not be met by a central counterstrike:22...c4?Rapport rushes.After22...Kh8White is uncoordinated as23.f4can be met bye424.Ne5Rxe525.fxe5Nxe526.hxg6Rg8-+23.bxc4dxc424.Nb2Qxd2?This runs into a tactical refutation.24...Rc8=25.Nxc4!Bxc426.Red1Qe227.Rxd7
Now White's forces are in full attacking harmony.27...Rd827...Rf728.Rd6f429.exf4exf430.Qc3gxh531.Rd4Ba632.Bc2+-27...Bxa2?!28.hxg6+-28.Bxf5Rxd729.Bxd7Bxa229...Bf730.Qxe5Qxh531.Qxh5gxh532.a4+-30.hxg6Qb231.Rc6e432.Bf5a4?!32...Qa1+33.Kh2Rxf534.gxh7+Kh835.Rc8+Kxh736.Qh3+Kg637.Qg4+Kf638.Rc6+Be639.Qh4+Ke540.Rc7Qd141.Rc5+Kd642.Qd8+Kxc543.Qxd1Rxf244.Qd4+Kc645.Qxe4+Kd646.Qd4++-33.Rc7Re8?!This loses by force. But there is no salvation anyway, e.g.33...Rxf534.gxh7+Kh835.Rc8+Kxh736.Qh3+Kg637.Qg4+Kf637...Rg538.Rc6++-38.Rf8+Bf739.Rxf7+Kxf740.Qxf5+Kg841.Qd5+Kg742.Qd7+Kf643.Qxa4+-34.g734.gxh7+wins as well:Kh835.Qd6a336.Re7Ra837.Rd7Re838.Rd8+-34...Bf735.Bxh7+!
The start of the mating combination.35...Kxh736.g8Q+Rxg837.Qh4+Even better than37.Rxf7+Rg738.Rxg7+Qxg739.Qh3+Kg840.Qc8+Kh741.Qf5+Kg842.Qd5+Qf743.Qa8+Kg744.Qxa4+-which wins as well.37...Kg738.Qg5+Kf838...Kh739.Qh5+Kg740.Rxf7#39.Qe7+39.Qe7+Kg740.Qxf7+Kh641.Rc6+Kg542.Qf4+Kh543.Rh6#1–0
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!
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu v. Richard Rapport | Photo: Stev Bonhage
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.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
Videos by Mihail Marin: Najdorf Variation with 6.f4 and Nico Zwirs: Italian ‘giucco pianissimo’. ‘Lucky bag’ with 45 analyses by Edouard, Ftacnik, Gupta, Pelletier and others. Update service with over 50,000 new games for your database!
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
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