Qualification race remained open until the end in round-robin tournament
Magnus Carlsen, Vincent Keymer, Fabiano Caruana and Nodirbek Abdusattorov have qualified for the semifinals of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship and remain in contention for the 2026 world title. The four secured their places after the completion of the seven-round rapid round-robin on Friday in Weissenhaus, Germany.
Carlsen won the round robin with 4.5 points out of 7 games. Keymer, Caruana and Abdusattorov each finished on 4 points. Hans Niemann scored 3.5, Arjun Erigaisi 3, while Javokhir Sindarov and Levon Aronian concluded the day on 2 points.
Qualification remained undecided until the final round, with several players still in contention and even the possibility of a four-way tie on 4 points. Only after the last results were confirmed did the semifinal field become definitive.
Freestyle Chess returned to Weissenhaus in Northern Germany once again in early February, with more at stake than ever before. This year, a cooperation with FIDE means that the official world title is at stake alongside a prize fund of $300,000 and three spots for the 2027 world championship cycle.
Now renamed Freestyle Chess, which might appeal to a wider audience, the Chess960 world championship was last held in 2022 when Hikaru Nakamura won the title. The American grandmaster chose not to defend his title and focus on the upcoming Candidates Tournament instead, but his successor will surely be a worthy champion as well.
A single-day round-robin of seven rounds was the traditional opener on Friday and delivered four semifinalists who are still in contention: Carlsen, Caruana, Keymer, and Abdusattorov. Especially after his victory of the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam Chess Tour in South Africa, there is no doubt who is the favorite once again: Magnus Carlsen.
“I like the fact that it’s cut-throat and it’s not going to be easy to come through for anybody,” was what Carlsen said about it at the press conference ahead of today’s opening day. It should be noted that a world title in this format of chess is one of the few trophies still missing in his cabinet.
The Norwegian star, sporting a moustache in Weissenhaus, has often appeared rusty and had some bumpy starts in these round-robin tournaments during the 2025 Tour, but not this time. He seemed fully warmed up from the start, perhaps because he was making the rounds on social media the other day in a cute video in which he played chess with his wife Ella. Starting with two draws and three wins out of the first five rounds, Carlsen was a point ahead of the field and virtually certain of qualification with two rounds to spare.
The tournament was a seven-round rapid event with games of 10 minutes and a five-second increment, and a new starting position for each round. It started with the always interesting clash between Carlsen and Hans Niemann. The American GM had entered the tournament as a wildcard and against Carlsen he was under pressure but got away with a draw. FIDE World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov played quite well in the next round and was close to holding Carlsen to a draw as well, until the latter found an extraordinary checkmate idea deep in a rook endgame:
In this objectively equal endgame, Sindarov played 49…b4??, missing White’s treat. Something like 49…a5 would have led to a draw: 50.bxa5 Kxa5 51.Kf4 c5 52.Ke5 d4 53.cxd4 cxd4 54.Kxd4 b5 55.Ke5 Kb4and Black is in time with the counterplay. 50.g8=Q! Javokhir instantly realized that taking the queen is met by 51.Rxb7 checkmate and so he resigned. 1–0
Another player who had a good start was Caruana, who won his first two games and then drew his next two. The all-American clash ended in his favor as Niemann followed the wrong strategy of material vs. dynamics, as was noted by commentator Judit Polgar. (It’s a joy once again to have the star of the recently launched Netflix documentary Queen of Chess being part of our commentary team once again, alongside Peter Leko, David Howell, Tania Sachdev and James “Dash” Patterson.)
Levon Aronian, the winner of the Las Vegas leg of last year’s Tour, had an unfortunate first day and didn’t make it into the top four. He called it “a day of blundering,” and explained that he was out of practice because he hadn’t played chess for two months. After spoiling a winning position in the fist round, he had a similar experience against Carlsen in the third, losing a promising endgame.
Arjun Erigaisi had the wildest tournament of them all: he didn’t draw a single game today. The Indian GM, who is the highest rated player of his country and the world number five in classical chess, was the only player to beat Carlsen, in round six. He didn’t just beat him, he crushed him. It was one of the few games where the engine showed an evaluation “better for White” from start to finish, and the eval bar just went up and up. Very impressive.
Vincent Keymer, the splendid winner of Weissenhaus a year ago, started well again on home soil. The German GM qualified with a round to spare after beating Caruana in a very nice game in round six. There was a brief moment where the latter missed a draw, but otherwise, Keymer was fully in control.
29…Rdxe5?? Black had to focus on counterplay on the second rank: 29…Rc5! 30.b6 Rcc2 and White cannot avoid a perpetual.
After the move played Black was doomed: 30.b6 Re1+ 31.Rxe1 Rxe1+32.Kf2 Rb1 33.a5 Kf7 34.Be3 Ke6 35.a6 1–0
A wounded Caruana now had to face Carlsen-killer Arjun in the final round, who was also still in contention. As it turned out, both players absolutely needed to win this game to make it into the top four, and it was the highly experienced American grandmaster who pulled it off. This time, Arjun was on the wrong side of a one-sided game; he never got a chance after some early mistakes in the opening.
Caruana and Keymer finished on 4/7, half a point behind Carlsen, and there was one more player not mentioned yet who joined them on four points as well. Tata Steel Chess winner Abdusattorov, who qualified for Weissenhaus by winning a grueling online play-in on Chess.com, can still win the $100,000 first prize and become world champion as well. He was somewhat helped by Carlsen in the final round, who didn’t press too hard, knowing that a draw was enough. The half point was all Abdusattorov needed as well.
One of the Uzbek’s victories today was against his compatriot and good friend Sindarov:
19…g5! Making space for Be8. The white king will be under a lot of fire. 20.Qe3 cxd5 21.cxd5 Nxd5 22.Qe2 bxa5 23.Qa6+ Kb8 24.exd5 Rc8+ 25.Kd2 Qc3+ 26.Ke2 Qc2+ 0–1
Perhaps the most unfortunate player to miss out on the semifinals was Niemann, who drew with tail-ender Aronian in the final round where he needed a win. As it went, Niemann came half a point short.
The three-day championship now moves into the knockout stage. The semifinals will be played on Saturday, with the final scheduled for Sunday, when the new FIDE Freestyle Chess World Champion will be crowned. The winner receives $100,000 from the total $300,000 prize fund. The top three finishers qualify directly for the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027.
Alongside the finals, we will also have the fight for places 5-8. And there’s more: an exhibition match between GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk and Bibisara Assaubayeva starts tomorrow, and the winner will be qualifying for the Women’s Freestyle Chess World Championship planned for later this year.
Written by Peter Doggers and Conrad Schormann
Photos: Lennart Ootes and Steve Bonhage / Freestyle Chess
Official website: https://www.freestyle-chess.com/