Carlsen and Caruana reach FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship Final
Keymer and Abdusattorov play for third place and the last 2027 qualification spot. Magnus Carlsen will face Fabiano Caruana in the final of the 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. Both grandmasters advanced through the semifinals on Saturday. World number one Carlsen now has the chance to claim a 21st world title. The Norwegian defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3–1, taking control of the match in the decisive phases and closing it out over four games. Caruana overcame Vincent Keymer 2½–1½, converting an early lead and holding firm under pressure. Both younger semifinalists had chances during their matches, but their experienced opponents prevailed at the critical moments. The final will determine the first FIDE-recognized Freestyle Chess World Champion under the federation’s official framework. By reaching the final, Carlsen and Caruana have secured qualification for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. The third and final qualification spot will be decided in the third-place match between Abdusattorov and Keymer. In the lower bracket, Hans Niemann beat Levon Aronian 2½–1½, while Arjun Erigaisi defeated Javokhir Sindarov 3–1. Niemann and Erigaisi will play for fifth place, with Aronian and Sindarov contesting seventh. The women’s exhibition match between Bibisara Assaubayeva and Alexandra Kosteniuk is level at 1–1 after two games of their best-of-four encounter. The championship concludes on Sunday with the final and placement matches. With northern Germany currently under fierce winter weather, a cold and snowy Weissenhaus was the backdrop for the semifinals of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. The event moved to a knockout format on Valentine’s Day with four-game matches at a longer time control: 25 minutes and a 10-second increment. At the end of the day, none of these matches ended in 2-2, so just like on the first day, a playoff wasn’t needed. Abdusattorov – Carlsen: 1-3 As the winner of the round-robin tournament, Carlsen had handpicked his opponent from the two options he had. Even so, he got involved in a difficult match with Abdusattorov, who put up a great fight. “It was definitely a very tough match against somebody who I feel gets stronger and stronger every time I play him,” Carlsen said afterward. The Uzbek GM’s style is to play quickly and put pressure on the clock, and it almost worked today. Carlsen got low on time at several points and narrowly survived those time troubles. The 2025 Tour winner arrived somewhat late for the first game of the day and missed the joint analysis. It kind of showed, when he needed almost five minutes on his first move and another three and a half on the second. Abdusattorov got an edge, but Carlsen countered nicely to secure the first half point as Black. The second encounter was drawn as well, ending slightly prematurely perhaps. With 10 minutes on the clock vs. just half a minute for Carlsen, Abdusattorov accepted a draw, but according to commentator Peter Leko the position on the board was actually a dead draw. Carlsen described those first two games as “relatively high quality draws.” The key moment of this semifinal came on move 33 in game three. It had been a very sharp middlegame already, with both players pushing passed pawns up the board. Now, with only heavy pieces on the board, Abdusattorov felt he had to play for a win because his passers were further advanced. While the draw was for the taking, the Uzbek GM made a big mistake. Carlsen grabbed his chance with a series of powerful moves, and took a lead in the match. 33…. Re2? Abdusattorov declines the draw that he can force in the board, but does so with a losing move.He should have played 33…Re1+ 34.Rxe1 Qxe1+35.Kh2 Qxd2 allowing a perpetual check given by the white queen. 34.Qg4+! Kh8 35.Rxe2 Qxe2 Black cannot save himself with 35…dxe2 36.Re1 Qc537.Qxe2 c3 38.a6 c2 39.Rc1 36.Qh4! Rg8 37.Qf6+Rg7 38.Qf8+Rg8 39.Qf6+Rg7 40.Qd8+! Rg8 41.Qd4+Rg7 42.Rg1! As it turns out, White’s are more dangerous than Black’s with the rook on g7 being pinned. It’s over. 42…d2 43.b6 Kg84 4.Qd8+ Kf7 45.b7 Rxg2 46.Qd5+ Kf6 47.Qxg2 d1=Q 48.Qxe2 1–0 We’ll give the microphone to Carlsen once again for his description of game four: “The last game I thought I had decent control over. There were a lot of complications at some point but it felt like it should always favor me to some degree, or at least be safe. For some reason I was hesitating, trying to find the cleanest way and I just spent all my time. It really annoyed me because once I’d spent all that time I realized: this is actually quite easy, but now if I get surprised at some point, what am I gonna do? I had 15 seconds or something. Fortunately there were no more surprises and he kind of lost on the next move. I guess I was always on the board kind of in control but getting down that much on time feels a bit silly.” “Of course the third game kind of determines a lot,” Carlsen said. “I think I was playing a good game until some point, then I lost control. He did extremely well, which he does. He calculates and he’s tough, but that was also his undoing at some point because I was fighting, getting low on time but not immediately collapsing and then I managed to sort of stay afloat. Then he clearly needed to make a draw and when he didn’t, I was thinking OK, maybe I have a chance now. Fortunately I managed to calm down, calculate and find the win.” Keymer –Caruana 1.5-2.5 “A bit of a rollercoaster,” Caruana described his semifinal. He had started the first day in Weissenhaus strongly, and he did so again on the second day. The American GM won the first game with the black pieces to take the lead in this match, with 7…g5 being the first contender for Move of the Day, and 11…Ba4 was another one. Out of nowhere, Caruana won an exchange and should have won comfortably, but much later in the game there was a moment where Keymer could have gotten away with a draw. Don’t