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From Wedding Bells to Freestyle Battles
Vidit Wins Paris Freestyle Spot – And Books His Honeymoon There
Vidit Gujrathi will join Carlsen, Gukesh & Co. at the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam
Vidit Gujrathi has secured the final spot in the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, completing an unexpected yet dominant run through the Play-In stage. The Indian grandmaster will now compete alongside World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Magnus Carlsen, and other elite players in the $750,000 event set for April 7-14—just days after his wedding. Paris, it seems, will not only be his battleground but also his honeymoon destination.
Vidit and his fiancé Nidhi will probably be heading out to Paris for their honeymoon right after the wedding. | Photo via @viditchess
Vidit’s road to qualification was marked by resilience and precision. He stormed through the final knockout stage, defeating Amin Tabatabaei and then Richard Rapport in the final. Despite entering the event without recent chess preparation, he controlled every stage of his matches, capitalizing on key blunders from his opponents and showcasing his ability to adapt to the unorthodox nature of Freestyle Chess.
The Road to the Knockout
The battle for the final Paris ticket began with a grueling nine-round Swiss event, where over 200 titled players fought for four qualifying spots. GMs Amin Tabatabaei, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Rauf Mamedov, and Pranesh M emerged as the top finishers, joining 12 invited players for the knockout phase.
Tabatabaei dominated the Swiss, securing 7/7 before easing up in the final rounds. “Honestly, I didn’t expect it to go so smoothly,” he admitted. Vietnamese Nguyen snuck into second place with a clutch victory in the final round, while Mamedov remained unbeaten. The fourth spot went to Pranesh, the 18-year-old Indian prodigy, who delivered a stunning win against Raunak Sadhwani after spotting a mistake as early as move one.
Whenever starting a game of Freestyle Chess, look out for unprotected pawns and your opponent’s possibilities to threaten them. Here, Raunak Sadhwani got in early trouble by playing 1…c7-c5. Pranesh replied 2.Sg3-h5, threatening to take the unprotected pawn with a smothered mate! As it turned out, g7 was not easy to defend.
Notable casualties included former World Championship candidate Alexander Grischuk, who missed a knight fork in the final round, and Sam Sevian, who suffered a shocking first-round blunder against 11-year-old FM Sergey Sklokin.
The Knockout Stage: Giants Fall, Four Remain
The 16-player knockout was brutal, with top names falling early. World Blitz Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, former World Champion Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, and Wei Yi were all eliminated before the semifinals.
Vidit overcame Pranesh in the quarterfinals after dispatching Ding Liren in the previous round. Tabatabaei, fresh off his Swiss victory, continued his streak by knocking out Leinier Dominguez. Mamedov stunned Liem Le with precise attacking play, while Rapport advanced after surviving a wild affair against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who threw away a winning position in their first game.
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The broadcast of the final day of the qualification.
The Final Clash: Vidit’s Precision and a First-Move Mistake Seal the Deal
The semifinals saw Vidit facing Tabatabaei, while Mamedov battled Rapport. Vidit dominated his Iranian rival, capitalizing on time pressure and an endgame collapse to book his spot in the final. Meanwhile, Rapport took down Mamedov with his trademark creative play.
Vidit delivered in the final, winning the first game convincingly after Rapport miscalculated in the early middlegame. The Hungarian needed to strike back but blundered on move one in the second game, allowing Vidit to close out the match with a draw. We’ll have a closer look at this final game of the qualification at the end of this article.
“It was a very pleasant surprise and went very smoothly,” Vidit said. “I haven’t been practicing much lately, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but everything just clicked.”
Vidit Gujrathi ist about to compete with the elite in Freestyle Chess. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Paris Awaits
Vidit now joins the field for the second leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, featuring Carlsen, Gukesh, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Weissenhaus Grand Slam winner Vincent Keymer and other elite players. While his focus will soon shift to wedding celebrations, the honeymoon will be in Paris—on and off the chessboard.
Nuggets of Freestyle Chess Wisdom
Let’s look at some key positions from the final game between Vidit and Rapport and take in the Freestyle Chess wisdom that commentators David Howell and David Pruess shared during the broadcast.
It would be a joy to see the ever-creative Richard Rapport compete in one of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slams. But here, with his chance to qualify for Paris still alive, he takes creativity too far—a mistake on move one!
Why is the move …c7-c5 so bad that the engine bar jumps to nearly +2?
Several reasons:
- It exposes the black king, compromising king safety, a fundamental chess principle.
- It does nothing to aid Black’s development. While it opens up the king’s position, it fails to activate any of the pieces that actually need to enter the game.
- It leaves the c5-pawn unprotected. If White pushes the f-pawn (which he did), c5 immediately comes under attack by the white queen. Meanwhile, White accelerates his development, opening diagonals for his queen and the bishop on e1, while Black remains stuck—forced to defend the c5-pawn instead of developing.
Two moves into the game. The white queen is looking down an avenue already while the black queen is tucked in.
Clearing paths for the queen to enter the game is a key concept in Freestyle Chess. David Howell and David Pruess discussed this after Black’s second move (all quotes slightly edited).
Pruess: “If you look at this position and ask yourself why it’s so strong, a key factor becomes apparent. The side making pawn moves to create space for the queen has a clear advantage over the side whose queen remains tucked away. That might be a crucial part of the evaluation.”
Howell: “Just give your queen at least some visibility into the position—I’d say some diagonals, some squares to work with. You don’t necessarily need to develop her too early, but giving her some scope is important.”
Howell also addressed king safety: “Another important aspect is castling. White’s king is well-protected behind a wall of pawns and could easily castle to the queenside. In contrast, Black’s king is in a much more vulnerable position. After pushing the c-pawn, it will no longer feel safe on that flank. At the same time, castling kingside requires Black to clear three pieces—the queen and both bishops—which seems highly unlikely to happen.”
a-side and h-side
Did you notice what David did there (and throughout the broadcast)?
Not only is Freestyle Chess still evolving as a game, but so is its terminology. In standard chess, we talk about castling short or long, kingside or queenside. In Freestyle Chess, those terms rarely make sense.
So, David Howell introduced “castling a-side” and “castling h-side”—a simple yet effective way to describe castling in a world where piece placement varies from game to game. It’s distinct, intuitive, and instantly understandable for anyone familiar with a chessboard.
Thank you, David. From now on, it’s a-side and h-side!
Beginners are well advised to always ensure their king’s safety. Once the beginner becomes an advanced player, advanced concepts like “king flexibility” come into play.
When this position was reached, David Howell introduced the audience to an advanced Freestyle Chess concept: king flexibility.
Look at White’s king—its flexibility is remarkable. Depending on how the game unfolds, it has three viable options:
- It could immediately castle reaaaally long towards the h-side.
- With just one preparatory move by the♖d1, it could castle a-side.
- It could remain where it is, in which case White would likely develop the ♖a1 by advancing the a-pawn up the a-file (keep this in mind—we’ll expand on it soon).
Now compare that to Black’s king. It feels unsafe where it stands, yet has no good alternatives. Unlike its white counterpart, the black king lacks flexibility—a major weakness in Freestyle Chess.
David Howell: “Flexibility with the king is really important in Freestyle Chess. Rapport has given himself minimal flexibility. He was never going to castle on the side he’s currently on because it’s too open after his first move. Castling the other way is now just a distant dream.”
The concept of king flexibility isn’t unheard of in traditional chess as well. While king safety is paramount, there are moments when delaying castling and staying flexible is strategically beneficial—keeping both a-side and h-side options open.
In Freestyle Chess between advanced players, this principle is even more critical. It plays a role in most games.
Push the a-pawn, kill two birds with one stone.
Richard Rapport, in his growing desperation, attempts to hide his king on b8. This allows White to be certain that the king will remain on the a-side—and act accordingly.
David Pruess: “I don’t know if everyone watching fully understands why moving the a-pawn is so attractive to us or why it’s such a strong move. Let me explain:
Black has these two pawns shielding the king, so one idea I might like is to use my a-pawn to break open their king’s position. Even if I don’t succeed in creating immediate weaknesses, every time I push my a-pawn, I improve the scope of my rook on a1, effectively developing a piece.”
Leaving the king uncastled and advancing the a-pawn (or h-pawn) is a common motif in Freestyle Chess. In this position, the march of the a-pawn serves a dual purpose: threatening Black’s king safety while simultaneously developing White’s last inactive piece, the rook on a1.
Vidit, however, found himself in an overwhelming position with multiple strong continuations. He ultimately chose a different path.
Want to dive deeper into Freestyle Chess concepts? Check out Niclas Huschenbeth’s Freestyle Chess Masterclass.
