Who will be the tenth participant in the kick-off of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025, starting on 7 February in WEISSENHAUS? This question will be answered by the open qualification, held online on chess.com from 4 to 8 January. Among the contenders are 14 members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club, all vying for the final spot in the tour’s opening event.

With some of the world’s best players taking part, we are in for five days of high-class Freestyle action, as the battle for the highly valuable qualification promises thrilling games and intense competition.

The winner of the qualifier will be part of a field that represents a who’s who of top chess: Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer and Viswanathan Anand have been confirmed as participants. Most recently, immediately after his World Championship victory in Singapore, Gukesh Dommaraju was the ninth player to confirm his participation.

The road to WEISSENHAUS begins with two open tournaments on 4 and 5 January. Titleholders, similar to those eligible for ‘Titled Tuesday,’ automatically qualify for the Swiss System tournament on 6 January. Additionally, the top three players from each of the two open tournaments will join them in the Swiss event.

On 6 January, the first two members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club will enter the fray: Alexander Grischuk and Chithambaram Aravindh, who became a club member on 1 January 2025 with an Elo rating of 2726. The Swiss System tournament will be a nine-round event with a time control of 10 minutes plus a 2-second increment.

The top four players from the Swiss tournament will advance to the knockout phase, which begins on 7 January. They will be joined by 12 members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club, selected by Freestyle Chess, to form a 16-player field. These competitors will battle it out in a knockout format to secure the coveted tenth spot in the tour kick-off on the German Baltic coast.

The following 12 Freestyle Chess Players Club members are confirmed for the knockout stage:

• Ian Nepomniachtchi
• Wei Yi
• Wesley So
• Leinier Dominguez Perez
• Jan-Krzysztof Duda
• Quang Liem Le
• Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa
• Hans Niemann
• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
• Santosh Gujrathi Vidit
• Yangyi Yu
• Parham Maghsoodloo

The knockout matches will consist of two games, each with a time control of 15 minutes plus a 3-second increment. The round of 16 begins on 7 January at 5 p.m. GMT, followed by the quarterfinals an hour later.

The final day of qualifying, 8 January, kicks off with the two semi-finals. The winners will meet in the final at 6 p.m. GMT to determine the tenth participant in WEISSENHAUS.