Women FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championships 2027
Seven-Round Group Stage Played on Wednesday
Carlsen Eliminated from Title Race in Las Vegas
Upper and Lower Brackets Determined
Magnus Carlsen, winner of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam events in Paris and Karlsruhe and overall tour leader, has been knocked out of title contention in Las Vegas. After a turbulent day in the round-robin phase, Carlsen finished shared fourth in his group and was eliminated in a playoff by Levon Aronian. He now drops into the lower bracket, where he can finish no higher than third.
The tournament’s first day, in the ballroom of the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, featured two eight-player round-robins – the White Group and the Black Group – with the top four from each advancing to the top bracket. The bottom four proceed to a placement bracket, fighting for final rankings and prize money, but no longer in contention for the Vegas title.
Carlsen opened with two wins but then hit a wall. Losses to Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Wesley So, along with two draws, left him needing a win in the final round just to force a tiebreak. He beat Bibisara Assaubayeva but then lost both playoff games to Aronian, who clinched the final qualifying spot.
In the same group, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Javokhir Sindarov secured 4.5/7 each to top the table. Aronian followed with 4 points, edging out Carlsen. As another contender in this group, Weissenhaus Grand Slam winner Vincent Keymer missed the top four.
In the Black Group, Hikaru Nakamura was dominant with 6/7. Hans Niemann, who started strongly with 4.5/5, also advanced alongside Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi. Caruana had drawn his first six games before beating Niemann in a must-win final round.
With the U.S. debut of Freestyle Chess underway in Las Vegas, 16 players now move on to the knockout stage. Half of them – including Carlsen and Keymer – will have to fight from below. The rest are one step closer to the $200,000 first prize.
Players once again joined forces in the analysis of the starting positions, in front of a live crowd this time. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.
Today’s group stage, which saw the participants play seven rounds of 10+10 games in two groups of eight players, opened the fourth leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam. Earlier this year we saw tournaments in Weissenhaus (Germany), Paris (France) and Karlsruhe (Germany). Carlsen is currently atop the overall leaderboard after winning the last two events, with his 9/9 perfect score at Grenke still standing out as a historic result.
One of the many Carlsen fans attending the tournament in Las Vegas is none other than Gerard Piqué. In between the second and third rounds, the former Manchester United and FC Barcelona star joined the official broadcast, where he revealed that he was visiting his first live top chess event. It should be noted that Piqué, who is also the president and owner of the Kings League, is one of the investors in Freestyle Chess.
Piqué said he was “very proud” at what he was seeing. Carlsen happens to be his favorite player, and he admitted he was still learning chess because it took him a while to understand his hero’s queen sacrifice played against Aronian. Asked where he would place Carlsen on a football pitch, Piqué said: “I assume in the midfield because he will move the team all around!”
Gerard Piqué joining the broadcast with Tania Sachdev (left) and Jan Henric Buettner. Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.
This fourth leg, taking place at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, is both bigger and smaller than we are used to. The field of players has been extended from 12 to 16, while everything will be decided over just five days this time. At stake is a prize fund of $710,000, with $200,000 going to the winner.
It is slightly unreal to realize that the world number one is already out of contention after the first day, but it is true. His form just wasn’t good enough today. An example was his game against former Fischer Random World Champion So, where the Norwegian initially reached a winning position thanks to a pretty combination, but uncharacteristically first spoiled it to a draw and then even ended up losing it.
A win that came out of nowhere for Wesley So. Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.
Carlsen only managed to win three games and lost two, which is below his normal standards. He ended up in a tie for fourth place with Aronian, who needed only a draw in the final round to qualify directly (and eliminate Carlsen!) but lost to Keymer. The Weissenhaus winner ended on three points, not enough to make it.
Aronian might have thought back to his game with Sindarov earlier in the tournament, where he blundered in a promising position.
Aronian could have made his life easier by beating Sindarov… Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.
This meant that a playoff between Carlsen and Aronian had to break the tie, with two 5+2 games. Carlsen was the favorite, but Aronian was the one winning the first game convincingly. He then also beat his opponent in a crazy time scramble in game two:
Niemann, who had qualified during the online play-ins on his birthday, four weeks ago, made a great impression on this first day in Las Vegas. With excellent time management and powerful chess, he smoothly sailed to 4.5/5, before losing those final two rounds to his compatriots Caruana and Nakamura which didn’t matter. He was clearly in great form.
“I prepared a lot, I played like six hours of training games a day, as many as I could,” he said in the official broadcast. “I really immersed myself into Freestyle.”
I prepared a lot, I played like six hours of training games a day, as many as I could.
Hans Niemann
Niemann stayed in the studio to watch the Carlsen-Aronian playoff and, talking to the commentators, he didn’t hide that he was strongly rooting for Aronian. After the latter won the first game, Niemann said: “There are very few pleasures in life that compare to this feeling.”
Regarding his own games, he was most proud of his encounter with Vidit, particularly his opening setup with modest pawn moves to f3 and c3 that had the advantage of not committing yet and allowing further development with tempo.
Hans Niemann started strongly with 4.5./5. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.
Ahead of Carlsen and Aronian, three players had finished on 4.5 points in Group White: Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov and Sindarov. The latter two, compatriots, were fortunate enough to be paired against each other in the final round where a draw would mean qualification for both. A draw offer before move 40 is not allowed, and in Freestyle it’s not so easy to steer the game to a draw, but the two Uzbeks had not trouble doing so.
Praggnandhaa, who has already won three tournaments this year, was one of the players who defeated Carlsen today.
Praggnanandhaa played a very good game against Carlsen. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.
In the other group, it was in fact Nakamura who reached the highest score of any player today. Two draws and five wins was a very impressive showing. Here’s his win against Niemann:
On Thursday we will see the quarterfinals, after which the losing players in the upper bracket will be moving into the lower bracket. The winners will continue fighting for the $200,000 first prize.
The drawing of lots during dinner resulted in the following pairings:
Upper Bracket
- Praggnanandhaa vs. Caruana
- Aronian vs. Nakamura
- Abdusattorov vs. Erigaisi
- Niemann vs. Sindarov
Lower Bracket
- Carlsen vs. Vidit
- Robson vs. Keymer
- Sevian vs. So
- Dominguez vs. Assaubayeva
