Freestyle Chess Paris day 2
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 is a series of Chess960 tournaments (also called Freestyle Chess), where the initial setup of pieces is randomized to reduce reliance on memorized openings. The Paris event is the second stop of the tour, following Weissenhaus, Germany (February 7–14, 2025). On Day 2 in Paris, April 8, 2025, the rapid round-robin phase concluded, determining the top eight players who advanced to the knockout stage. See all details of Freestyle Paris 2025 here / Live games
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.