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The downside of knockout tournaments is that players who lose a game or a match are eliminated from the tournament for good. With the recently popularised double-elimination format, organisers aim to address this issue and keep players in the competition. However, the system can be somewhat confusing at first.
There is another way to organise an event of this nature, though. At Freestyle Chess in Weissenhaus, placement matches are held at every stage. This ensures that players remain in the tournament and still have something to compete for, namely a higher share of the prize money and Grand Slam points.
The Keymer Variation - 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3
This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.
On the seventh day of the tournament, spectators watched the first game of the match for tournament victory, featuring Vincent Keymer and Fabiano Caruana; a match for third place between Magnus Carlsen and Javokhir Sindarov; a match for fifth place between Hikaru Nakamura and Nodirbek Abdusattorov; and a match for seventh place between Gukesh Dommaraju and Alireza Firouzja.
Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Keymer is consolidating his status as a formidable Freestyle Chess player. There is no separate rating system yet, but if there were, Keymer might already be leading the rankings. In the semifinal, Germany's number one in classical chess convincingly defeated Carlsen. In fact, the Norwegian found himself in inferior positions throughout most of the match.
In the first game of the final match against Caruana, Keymer seamlessly continued his strong performance. After a few moves, it was difficult to believe that both players had started from the same initial position. Keymer had built a perfectly harmonious position, while Caruana's pieces seemed randomly scattered. Some of his pieces never found active squares.
| Keymer, Vincent2731 | 1–0 | Caruana, Fabiano2803 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 | Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Knock O Weissenhaus, Germany13.02.2025[Schulz, A] | | |||||||||||||||||||||
After losing his match against Keymer, Carlsen delivered a strong and cohesive performance against Sindarov in the battle for third place. Carlsen started off better, and after Sindarov weakened his position along the long diagonal, Carlsen's attack along that line became the factor that decided the game in his favour.
| Sindarov, Javokhir2700 | 0–1 | Carlsen, Magnus2833 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Knock O Weissenhaus, Germany13.02.2025[Schulz, A] | | |||||||||||||||||||||
The Fashionable Caro-Kann Vol.1 and 2
The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.
Three of the best players in the history of the game analysing a Freestyle Chess position: Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Nakamura, playing black, secured a victory over Abdusattorov, while Firouzja failed to make the most of his superior position against Gukesh, and their game ended in a draw.
Hikaru Nakamura | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Alireza Firouzja and Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Replay all games of the rapid round-robin on Live.ChessBase.com
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