In the first tournament of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 in Weissenhaus, Vincent Keymer managed to steal the tournament victory from Magnus Carlsen. The strongest chess player of this era only managed to get third place.
It was a different story in Paris. Keymer was unable to get past Hikaru Nakamura in the semifinals, which meant the final match was Carlsen versus Nakamura, the number one versus the number two in the world rankings. In their many duels, the two seldom face each other in person, as most of their duels have taken place in online tournaments. At the freestyle chess events, however, they play against on real boards.
Carlsen had left Nakamura in a must-win situation after prevailing in the first game of the final. And whoever is ahead in a two-game match has a huge advantage at the highest level. In fact, Carlsen, now with the black pieces, was only looking to exchange and simplify. Nakamura endeavoured to keep the ball in play, but could not prevent the struggle from transforming into a rook ending with no winning chances for him.
The Norwegian took home a good-looking trophy and the $200,000 first prize.
Hikaru Nakamura playing white against Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Stev Bonhage
In the matches for the remaining places, the starting situation was more or less the same. In this case, however, the players with the black pieces had won their games on the first day.
So the task of simplifying the positions was even easier with the white pieces - even if not quite as easy as in "normal" chess, where the top players are all very familiar with the opening lines that lead to simplifications.
Keymer was one of the players who was looking to come from behind. In the battle for third place against Fabiano Caruana, Keymer's chances of equalising ended on move eight when he could only parry an attack on his queen by losing an exchange.
Caruana took his time to capture the exchange, and Keymer went on to give up his queen for two minor pieces. The game was somewhat surreal at times, and it ended in a 34-move draw after Caruana offered to split the point from a completely winning position.
Fabiano Caruana got third place after obtaining a 1½-½ win over Vincent Keymer, the winner of the inaugural tournament of the series | Photo: Stev Bonhage
In the match for fifth place, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave gained an advantage while playing black against Arjun Erigaisi in a must-win situation. However, the Frenchman's edge evaporated in the endgame after a long struggle. MVL had to settle for a draw and sixth place.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov fought for 70 moves against Ian Nepomniachtchi, looking for chances to win the game and equalise the match. In the endgame, the Uzbek star had an extra exchange more, but was also a pawn down. Nepomniachtchi capitalised on his pawn advantage to actually win the match by a 2-0 score.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov analysing the position from the black side | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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