Freestyle Chess Las Vegas Grand Final - Live!

by ChessBase
7/20/2025 – The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam continues in Las Vegas from 16 to 20 July with a 16-player invitational event featuring a round-robin followed by a double-elimination knockout stage. Top players including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana are taking part. All games will be broadcast live with commentary, and eliminated players will contribute to coverage. | Follow the games live starting at 20.00 CEST (14.00 ET, 23.30 IST)
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The Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam takes place from 16 to 20 July, featuring 16 players competing in a combined round-robin and knockout format. Held at the Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy, the event includes top US grandmasters such as Nakamura and Caruana, alongside international stars like Carlsen, Arjun and Abdusattorov.

The tournament begins with two eight-player round-robin groups. The top four from each group qualify for the main knockout bracket (places 1–8), while the rest play in a parallel bracket for positions 9–16. All matches are played as two-game mini-matches, with time controls and tie-breaks varying by stage.

All games will be broadcast live with commentary. Players eliminated from contention will remain involved through content duties, ensuring full coverage throughout the five-day event.

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Group stage - White

Group stage - Black

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Freestyle Chess Kicks Off Landmark Week in Las Vegas

7/14/2025 – With an opening press conference at Wynn Las Vegas, Freestyle Chess has officially launched its first-ever U.S. event: a full week of chess, celebrity, and competition. The week began with the Chesstival on July 13, and will continue with the $750,000 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam from July 16 to 20. | Photo: freestyle_chess and wwwchesscom
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Freestyle Chess in Las Vegas - with Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann

6/24/2025 – For the first time, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour comes to the United States. From July 16 to 20, Wynn Las Vegas will host 16 of the world’s top chess players, competing for $750,000 in prize money in a format designed to reward creativity and skill. The event marks the fourth stop of the 2025 global tour and is the first to welcome a live audience. | Photo: Freestyle Chess
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Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.