“Alireza was just incredible today,” commented Caruana on the winner of the rapid. “He played amazingly and I think he deserved to win, especially beating Sindarov in the last round. There was some change over yesterday: I dropped, and Alireza started to play really well. But I’m not too surprised with his result because he’s really strong in this format.”

Firouzja, the 21-year-old Iranian-French grandmaster, scored two wins and two draws on the final day, starting with a win against Fedoseev in round six. Caruana and Sindarov, who both drew their games, kept a half-point lead.

Meanwhile, the question was whether Carlsen would get into the danger zone after his three losses on the first day. Starting with a win against Abdusattorov was important, and it was a good one. The winner of last year’s G.O.A.T. Challenge dominated from start to finish:

Sindarov, who did surprisingly well on that first day, continued his great form and beat Abdusattorov with the black pieces. He was suddenly leading by a full point, since Caruana suffered his only loss in the tournament vs. Nakamura. Meanwhile, Firouzja was on the brink of beating Carlsen but let his opponent slip away. The half point was enough to catch Caruana in second place, though.

The key game of this round, however, was Aronian-Fedoseev, the players in ninth and tenth place. It was do or die for them, as both were fighting for their lives in this event and a slim chance to still make it to the knockout. Fedoseev’s win made Aronian’s task virtually impossible.

Sindarov maintained his one-point lead over Caruana and Firouzja for one more round as he drew the game with one of his direct rivals, Caruana, while Firouzja drew with Abdusattorov (once again missing a win along the way).

With one more round to go, Aronian had one point and was eliminated. Fedoseev was on two and a half points, Abdusattorov on three points and both Keymer and Gukesh on three and a half points. Different playoff scenarios were possible with up to four players finishing in a tie for eighth place.

In the end, the most important thing for that to happen didn’t. Fedoseev had to draw or win against Nakamura, but lost instead. He already got into trouble in the opening:

Firouzja emerged as the winner of the rapid after beating the long-time tournament leader Sindarov. The 19-year-old Uzbek blamed fatigue after what was otherwise a fantastic event for him. He was nonetheless in a good mood, and proclaimed to be a fan of the Freestyle format: “You can play any first move and you just get a very interesting position so that’s why I hope we will see a lot of Freestyle tournaments in the coming years!”

Meanwhile, Firouzja was definitely the deserved winner, after drawing several winning positions. “The whole tournament I spoiled my chances,” he laughed afterward.

Asked which player had impressed him the most, Sindarov said: “Caruana was amazing, his understanding of this chess. When we are playing with one color and we got 10 minutes, he was doing an amazing job for I think everyone!”

Interestingly, Firouzja only lost to Caruana in their game on Saturday. That game had a side story: by incredible coincidence, Caruana had played the exact same opening position in a training game with his second that morning.

On a final note, Firouzja also revealed that initially he looked at each new starting position alone at his board, but as soon as he was certain of making it to the next stage, he started joining the others in their 10-minute analysis. For him it was mainly to socialize a bit more. “I think our analysis is of a really bad level,” he said with a smile. “Most of the times with Black we don’t even get to a conclusion of what to do!”

We’ll leave with one final game, namely the first clash of the new classical world champion Gukesh against world number one Carlsen. It was a good fight that remained roughly equal until almost the very end.