Magnus Carlsen won the encounter with a total score 4-2. But the score does not tell the whole story! Carlsen took the lead in game 3, after defeating Nakamura with white. Hikaru had a shot in the next game, but in a rare turn of events resigned in a winning position, missing 33. Rfg3! Replay the game below.

If you are looking for more action by Carlsen and Nakamura, do not forget to check out the complete Magnus Carlsen calendar and the complete Hikaru Nakamura calendar, which are now integral parts of The Chessdom Chess Calendar

After the game where Hikaru resigned in a winning position, Magnus Carlsen gave an interview where he discussed the upcoming EWC, the games of the final, and even his big glass on stream (see the video here)

Hans Niemann controversy continues: Hans Niemann shows up at Grenke after 12 days radio silence / More on Twitter

Special note: Good Friday will have no broadcast of Grenke. Games will be uploaded the next day manually. The rules of the holiday in Germany also forbid dancing. Information, schedule and participants: Grenke Freestyle Chess / Grenke Open

Freestyle Chess Paris 2025 boasts a strong field, including world’s N1 Magnus Carlsen and World Champion Gukesh. Even after the withdraw of Alireza Firouzja and the disappearance of Hans Nieman (see this, this, this, and this) Freestyle Paris remains one of the strongest events of 2025.

New: This month of April, Chessdom is launching a newsletter that you get DAILY to your mailbox for FREE. Signup with your mail in the form below

Live video broadcast from Paris Freestyle Chess 2025

Day 1 (April 7) saw Magnus Carlsen and Nodirbek Abdusattorov take the lead with 5/6 points each, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave close behind at 4.5/6. Day 2 featured five more rapid rounds (10+10 time control), and by the end, Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi tied for first with 7.5/11. Carlsen went 7-1-1 through nine games, showing his dominance, while Nepomniachtchi surged with 4.5/5 on Day 2. From the four Indian players World Champion Gukesh, together with Pragg and Vidit did not make it into top 8. The only Indian participant who goes forward is Arjun Erigaisi.

The top eight qualifiers included Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun Erigaisi, Abdusattorov, Hikaru Nakamura, Vincent Keymer, and Fabiano Caruana. Players like World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Richard Rapport, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Vidit Gujrathi missed the cut and moved to a separate 9th–12th place playoff.

Freestyle Paris quarterfinal pairings

Vincent Keymer – Ian Nepomniachtchi
Magnus Carlsen – Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Fabiano Caruana
Arjun Erigaisi – Hikaru Nakamura

For the quarterfinals, starting on April 9, 2025, the rules are as follows: The top four finishers from the round-robin choose their opponents from those ranked 5th to 8th. The highest-ranked player picks first, followed by the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, each selecting from the remaining lower-ranked qualifiers. In Paris, after Day 2, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi tied for first with 7.5/11, but tiebreaks gave Nepomniachtchi the top seed. He chose Vincent Keymer, taking Black in Game 1. Carlsen, as second seed, picked Nodirbek Abdusattorov with White. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (3rd, 7/11) selected Fabiano Caruana, and Arjun Erigaisi (4th, 6.5/11) chose Hikaru Nakamura.

Each quarterfinal match consists of two classical games played over two days—April 9 and 10. The time control shifts to 90 minutes per player for the entire game, with a 30-second increment added after each move. This slower pace contrasts with the rapid round-robin in the preliminary phase, emphasizing deeper calculation in the randomized Chess960 positions.

Tiebreaks: If a match is tied at 1-1 after the two classical games, a tiebreak is played on April 10 after the second game. The tiebreak sequence is:

• Two rapid games with a 10-minute base time plus a 10-second increment (same as the round-robin).
• If still tied, two blitz games with a 5-minute base time plus a 2-second increment.
• If unresolved, a single Armageddon game decides the winner. In Armageddon, players bid secretly on how much time they’re willing to take as Black (with draw odds) starting from a 5-minute base. The lower bidder plays Black; White gets 5 minutes with no increment.

Advancement: The winner of each quarterfinal match advances to the semifinals (April 11–12), following the same two-game classical format and tiebreak rules if needed.

The events of Freestyle Paris Day 1

Magnus Carlsen, the world number one, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov emerged as the early leaders, each securing five wins out of six matches. Carlsen defeated three of the four Indian participants—World Champion D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, and R Praggnanandhaa—but lost a game to Arjun Erigaisi.

Abdusattorov, a last-minute replacement for Hans Niemann (who withdrew for alegedly personal reasons), also impressed with his strong performance. Meanwhile, Gukesh struggled, losing four of his six matches, including games against Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. Among the Indian contingent, Arjun Erigaisi stood out with 3.5 points, including notable victories over Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, making him the best-performing Indian player of the day. Praggnanandhaa earned 2.5 points with two wins and a draw, while Vidit Gujrathi managed just one win, placing him at the bottom of the standings.

Other highlights included Nakamura suffering an upset loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi in the first round despite an early advantage with White. The day concluded with Carlsen and Abdusattorov leading, while all players remained in contention for the knockout spots as five more rapid rounds were scheduled for the following day, April 8, 2025.

As the day finished, there was still no official statement from Hans Niemann on his withdraw from Freestyle Paris 2025

Timeline of Hans Niemann withdrawing from Freestyle Chess Paris

05.04. Norwegian TV reports that Niemann is withdrawing after he was informed about anti-cheating
05.04 Breaking: Hans Niemann withdraws from Freestyle Chess Paris 2025 (rolling updates)
06.04 Reactions to Hans Niemann withdrawing from Paris Freestyle Chess 2025
06.04 Chess Song: Disappearing stars (Hans Niemann & Alireza Firouza) #TweetOftheDay
06.04 The organizer of Freestyle Chess Paris comments on the withdraw of Hans Niemann

Pairings Freestyle Chess Paris day 2

Standings after day 1

More about GCL: Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024 detailed information / Live games

Billed as the IPL of chess, this will be the second season of the Global Chess League, a ridiculously strong six-team competition run on a franchise system. Each team comprises six players and will take part in a double-round all-play-all, before the top two sides play off for the title. All games are a brisk 20 minutes per player – without any increment – so expect plenty of dramatic time scrambles.

Last year’s inaugural Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in Dubai saw a quite gripping final: Triveni Continental Kings and upGrad Mumba Masters finished level at 6-6. Two rounds of extra time or rather blitz failed to alter the equilibrium, meaning a penalty shoot-out type scenario: a series of sudden death blitz games began, ending when the young Danish Grandmaster Jonas Bjerre defeated teenage Uzbek Olympiad star Javokhir Sindarov.

Following his dominant performance in the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship – crushing Hans Niemann 17½-12½ then Alireza Firouzja by a whopping 23½-7½ in the final in Paris – all eyes will be on the dominant world number one, Magnus Carlsen, who heads up the Alpine SG Pipers. Their two ‘superstar men’ are 19-year-old Indian sensation Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Richard Rapport, with their two ‘superstar women’ also mightily impressive: Hou Yifan and Kateryna Lagno. Throw in 18-year-old Belgian number one Daniel Dardha as the ‘prodigy’ and it’s not hard to see why the Pipers are favourites.

The legendary Vishy Anand is a worthy icon if ever there was one and heads up the Ganges Grandmasters. The former world champion will have to do battle with not just Carlsen, but his fellow icons: Hikaru Nakamura (American Gambits), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Triveni Continental Kings), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Mumba Masters) and Anish Giri (PBG Alaskan Knights).

Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024 participants

Alpine SG Pipers Magnus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa R, Richard Rapport, Hou Yifan, Kateryna Lagno, Daniel Dardha

Ganges Grandmasters Viswanathan Anand, Arjun Erigaisi, Parham Maghsoodloo, Vaishali R, Nurgyul Salimova, Volodar Murzin

Mumba Masters Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi, Alexander Grischuk, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Raunak Sadhwani

PBG Alaskan Knights Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Tan Zhongyi, Alina Kashlinskaya, Nihal Sarin

Triveni Continental Kings Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wei Yi, Teimour Radjabov, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina, Javokhir Sindarov

American Gambits Hikaru Nakamura, Vladislav Artemiev, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Elisabeth Paehtz, Jonas Buhl Bjerre

The team line-ups were determined by an auction, which took place in August in Delhi. Each franchise was allocated 1000 points for five players in their team (the icon top boards were already decided), with any players they wished to retain from last year costing 200 points. Bidding for each new player began at 50 points and could go all the way up to 800!

To buy tickets for the Global Chess League (Friends House, London) please visit chess.co.uk. Tickets are available for each of the 10 days: Thursday October 3rd to Saturday October 12th. For the very keen, there’s also the option of a season pass, and packages are available for group and chess club bookings – contact info@chess.co.uk for more details.

Play begins at 1pm on each of the first nine days, with further rounds at 3pm and 4.45pm, as well as 2.15pm on some days (the final kicks off at 2.15pm on October 12th). There will be a lot of chess, high quality chess at that, as well as commentary at the venue and analysis for the audience supplied between rounds.

The story so far

Aug 21 Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation submits resolution to restore the full membership rights of RCF

Aug 22 David Llada talks about systematically to reward submission

Sept 1 Alexander Kamyshin is the new President of Ukrainian Chess Federation

Sept 7 Babur Tolbaev is among the candidates for FIDE Ethics Commission chairman

Sept 9 Russia most probably has the votes to pass the Kyrgyz resolution

Sept 9 Kamyshin: I will personally attend the FIDE General Assembly

Sept 12 Garry Kasparov supports Alexander Kamyshin

Sept 12 Malcolm Pein for BBC, “Russia’s control of FIDE is absolute”

Sept 16 Vasyl Ivanchuk and the Olympic teams of Ukraine protest against Kyrgyz motion

Sept 17 FIDE Congress – national federations at risk of losing government funding

Sept 19 Magnus Carlsen: I would have voted against the Russian/Kyrgyz proposal to lift sanctions on Russia

Sept 19 Kasparov: I would say the same on the Russian/Kyrgyz proposal

Sept 20 First reaction by Chess Federation of Russia

The Chess Federation of Russia published an official statement on the eve of the FIDE Congress. The statement is from Andrei Filatov, who failed to receive a visa for the Chess Olympiad 2024, just like multiple players and other officials.

Throwback: Vladimir Putin grants Sergey Karjakin medal “For Merit to the Fatherland”

Statement by Filatov

“Ukrainian chess officials most particularly represented by the Ukrainian Chess Federation at all levels of authority do not give up attempts to “punish” Russia in the sports chess arena. And not only in chess. It is clear that at all times, to one degree or another, there have been military conflicts where each warring nation considered it possible to defend its interests and sovereignty on the battlefield. However, no country participating in a military conflict in one way or another has been subject to any discriminatory measures by FIDE before, especially to exclusion from the FIDE family. It is fair since, according to the Olympic Charter, athletes are no subject to discrimination based on any differences: racial, gender or political grounds.

Recently FIDE represented by the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission predictably cancelled its decision to deprive Russia of membership in FIDE, which it had previously hastily adopted precisely for political reasons. At the same time, we also expect the full restoration of Russia’s rights in FIDE at the upcoming General Assembly that will be held on 21-22 September 2024. There will be a vote to decide on the issue of restoring full membership of Russia in FIDE. 

However, the Ukrainian Chess Federation realizing its futility in influencing the GA Agenda, which includes these items, has apparently been showing unsportsmanlike behavior on the eve of the elections. The Ukrainian Chess Federation begins to put pressure on the FIDE GA Delegates by sending out appeals through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine asking them not to support the restoration of rights in FIDE for Russian athletes, which also contain ultimatums to the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who is known to be a citizen of Russia. 

We consider such behavior of Ukrainian officials to be unworthy since it directly affects the FIDE General Assembly Delegates’ objective and transparent expression of will, and may become the basis for privileges or restrictions of a discriminatory nature in the election process. In this regard Russia declares a strong protest. 

We would also like to draw attention to the fact that such discriminatory decisions of FIDE in relation to a country that is in a state of military conflict mean that any of the countries that are currently (and may be in the future) at war may also lose their full membership in FIDE in accordance with the precedent that has already been set”.

End of statement

The legendary coach Ivan Sokolov, who leads the team of Romania at the Chess Olympiad 2024 and has recently been overcharged for his stay, said, “Magnus Carlsen shows surprising humility! Amazing! Thank you, Magnus Carlsen”

Full Magnus statement here / Decision of the FIDE Council / See the reply of Garry Kasparov

The story so far

Aug 21 Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation submits resolution to restore the full membership rights of RCF

Aug 22 David Llada talks about systematically to reward submission

Sept 1 Alexander Kamyshin is the new President of Ukrainian Chess Federation

Sept 7 Babur Tolbaev is among the candidates for FIDE Ethics Commission chairman

Sept 9 Russia most probably has the votes to pass the Kyrgyz resolution

Sept 9 Kamyshin: I will personally attend the FIDE General Assembly

Sept 12 Garry Kasparov supports Alexander Kamyshin

Sept 12 Malcolm Pein for BBC, “Russia’s control of FIDE is absolute”

Sept 16 Vasyl Ivanchuk and the Olympic teams of Ukraine protest against Kyrgyz motion

Sept 17 FIDE Congress – national federations at risk of losing government funding

It is raining in Budapest, but rain alone is not the culprit of Carlsen’s woes. After severe accommodation issues (see reports from Monaco, Scotland and Germany / Turkey / England / Anish Giri / Croatia) players had to be scattered among different hotels. GM Stefanova predicted the main problem of the event as accommodation problems transposed to transfers and transportation problems.

Magnus Carlsen is not the only one arriving soaking wet in the playing hall, but has all cameras pointed to him. Will the wet conditions stop Carlsen from helping Norway today? Follow the game live here