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Grenke Chess Festival in Karlsruhe With Over 3,000 Participants
Carlsen Tops Star-Studded Field As Freestyle Chess Open Gets Underway
Nine Rounds of Swiss Over the Easter Weekend
The grenke Freestyle Chess Open, part of the 2025 grenke Chess Festival, got underway on Thursday evening at the Congress Center in Karlsruhe, Germany. Apart from the stellar $225,000 prize fund, the players (among them Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana) are competing for Grand Slam points and a qualification spot to the third leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in July in Las Vegas.
“A picture that couldn’t be more beautiful,” said tournament director Sven Noppes in his opening speech in front of thousands chess players gathered in Karlsruhe to start playing nine rounds of chess over the Easter holidays. The 2025 grenke Chess Festival is the largest chess event in Europe with a record 3,000+ participants. Over 500 of them chose to play Chess960 instead of standard chess.
“More than 3,000 registrations – overwhelming!” said Noppes. “The grenke Chess Festival once again sets standards. Karlsruhe will become the center of the chess world for five days. Anyone who loves chess should experience it.”
Sven Noppes addressing the crowd of spectators and mostly players. Photo: Stev Bonhage.
Sebastian Siebrecht, Chief Chess Officer of Freestyle Chess, said: “Where else can you play with Carlsen and Keymer in the same competition in the same hall – and then be ranked together? Freestyle and grenke bring together depth and elite like no other format.”
The festival runs the full Easter weekend, with two games per day scheduled for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Both the classical and Freestyle tournaments are nine-rounds Swisses divided into three rating groups; the time control everywhere is 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment. In the Freestyle tournament, every round will have a new starting position and the games will count for the new Freestyle ratings. A special feature allows all participants from the classical open to switch to the Freestyle open until the end of round five.
Many Freestyle players traveled to Karlsruhe straight from the Paris Grand Slam. Besides Carlsen and Caruana there’s also Arjun Erigaisi, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vincent Keymer, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Richard Rapport. Other top GMs present in Karlsruhe include Aravindh Chithambaram, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Hans Niemann, and Parham Maghsoodloo, who came fresh from his Reykjavik Open win a few days ago.
The giant playing hall in Karlsruhe. Photo: Stev Bonhage.
The first prize in the Freestyle Chess open is $60,000 while the top finisher not already qualified (Carlsen and Caruana) will earn a spot into the third leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, in July of this year in Las Vegas. The winner will also gain 25 Grand Slam Points, second place will receive 18, third 15, fourth 12, fifth 10, sixth 8, seventh 6, eighth 4, ninth 2, and tenth 1 point.
A special characteristic of an open tournament is the first-round pairings, where the Swiss pairing system sets up top players against playing club-level players. The German amateur player Vinzenz Hillermann was the lucky one to face Carlsen on board one, who won in 18 moves. Germany’s IM Dinara Wagner was even quicker, winning her game in just eight moves.
Board one, round one: Carlsen vs. Hillermann. Photo: Stev Bonhage.
Also on stage, on the second board and next to Carlsen, Hans-Walter Schmitt was playing, a nice gesture from the organizers. Schmitt was the main organizer of many Chess960 tournaments in the early 2000s in Frankfurt and Mainz.
You can follow the tournament on the Chess24 YouTube channel with commentary by GM Peter Leko and IM Lawrence Trent.
