Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, scored a low-key triumph on Monday when he received the Paris leg of the $3.75m Freestyle Grand Slam by defeating his outdated rival and world No 2, USA’s Hikaru Nakamura, by 1.5-0.5 within the closing. It was affected person attrition over the 2 video games, worthy of a spot within the Carlsen-David Howell guide Grind like a Grandmaster.
The decisive first sport had some technical errors, which the Norwegian described nearly apologetically in his post-game interview. The rematch was extra routine because the 34-year-old simplified to his aim of a drawn rook endgame and a move-40 handshake.
Carlsen now has the general lead within the five-leg $3.75m Grand Slam which continues later within the yr at Las Vegas, Delhi and Cape City.
Earlier, he displayed his creativity when he gave up his queen for 3 minor items in his quarter-final, and his versatility and his persevering with starvation for extra chess when, his day’s work carried out in Paris, he took half in chess.com’s weekly Titled Tuesday and made a clear sweep of all 11 video games, a uncommon feat which he has achieved twice beforehand. This week, Carlsen did it once more, successful Titled Tuesday with an unbeaten 10/11.
The openings in Freestyle are a treacherous swamp, the place careless play can result in a misplaced place inside a dozen strikes. Related expertise helps, although. Freestyle has 960 totally different beginning positions, however there have been instances the place one of many 960 appeared in a earlier match, and a GM has remembered it.
A while within the first 20 or so strikes, a Freestyle place usually turns into recognisably just like regular chess and the gamers can use their earlier information successfully. In Carlsen’s Freestyle video games, he spots this metamorphosis and transformation quicker than his rivals, and that’s one secret of his continued success.
A destructive at Paris was the failure of the 4 Indians who’ve dominated classical chess in recent times. Solely Arjun Erigaisi, who remained true to his attacking type and emerged in fifth place, did properly, whereas Gukesh Dommaraju, the 18-year-old classical world champion, did worst, ending eleventh out of 12.
What occurs to the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam within the coming months stays to be seen. Its third leg, scheduled for New York in late July, has been moved to Las Vegas and decreased from eight days to 5, permitting two video games a day within the pursuits of publicity. This implies a quicker time restrict, from gradual classical chess, as championed by Carlsen, to one-hour speedy video games.
The change may replicate the worsened financial local weather. The Grand Slam collection, which was projected to interrupt even with the assistance of latest buying and selling companions by 2026, is financially backed by a $12m funding from the New York based mostly enterprise capitalist agency Left Lane Capital, which is privately quoted however continues to be prone to market downturns and recessions. The pressures for Freestyle to realize quicker profitability, and wider help among the many chess public and media, are rising.
Ju Wenjun, the holder, received 4 video games in succession towards her demoralised challenger, Tan Zhongyi, to attain a 6.5-2.5 victory within the $500,000 Girls’s World Championship match in Chongqing. Recreation seven was Tan’s nadir as she allowed her a8 black bishop to be entombed by her personal c6 pawn and a c5 white knight. Ju wanted only a attract Wednesday’s ninth sport (of 12) to take the crown for the fifth time in her profession.
Ju has now equalled the title totals of Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze, each of Georgia, who every received 5 crowns between 1962 and 1988, The all-time document holder stays Vera Menchik, a Czech who lived most of her life in London. Menchik received eight titles between 1927 and 1939 earlier than being killed by a German V1 bomb at her Clapham residence in 1944.
Shreyas Royal, England’s youngest ever grandmaster, scored his greatest efficiency to this point in 2025 when he totalled 6.5/9 on the Reykjavik Open after sharing the lead two rounds from the end. It introduced a pairing with Iran’s world No 31, Parham Maghsoodloo, which Royal misplaced in 17 strikes attributable to 9…Bxc3+? (9..d6!) permitting the highest seed’s 12 Ba3! with decisive threats to d6.
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Nigel Brief, the 1993 world title challenger, is making a uncommon aggressive look this week within the Bangkok Open, the place his third spherical win began with the Grand Prix Assault and led to a devastating assault on his opponent’s king.
England swept the board finally week’s European Senior over-50 and over-65 Championships at Swidnica, Poland, final weekend, successful three crew golds, one crew bronze, and 14 particular person medals. Each England 50+, led by Michael Adams, and England 65+, headed by John Nunn, received each match and neither misplaced a single sport.
Such a feat would usually rank a lot greater on this column, however entries for the occasion have been low each in high quality and amount. The European Seniors have been staged solely two months after the World Seniors in Prague, a well-liked venue, whereas many seniors have been deterred by Fide’s overzealous Honest Play anti-cheating officers, which sparked a public rebuke by Malcolm Pein in Chess journal.
BBC Two’s Chess Masters: The Endgame reaches episode seven (of eight) on Easter Monday at 8pm. Viewers numbers, equipped by Broadcast, stay rock strong at 600.000, 5% of the viewing viewers, and indicative of a major loyal fan base.
Subsequent Monday’s episode will embrace an look by Bodhana Sivanandan, the Harrow 10-year-old who has change into globally well-known. Sivanandan is prone to tackle all six remaining contestants concurrently, a feat which will likely be acquainted to her. Right here is how, at age eight, she defeated Harrow Chess Membership 5-1.
What do retired grandmasters do? One reply, as defined right here by GM Jonathan Levitt, is to write music lyrics about Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
3968: 1…Rf4! wins with the risk 2…g3 and three…Qh2 mate. If 2 Qc3 Qh4 3 Qc8+ Kh7 and White has no defence to 4…g3.
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