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Carlsen Beats Nakamura In Thriller To Lead Final
World no. 1 Magnus Carlsen has taken the lead against no. 2 Hikaru Nakamura. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.

Carlsen Beats Nakamura In Thriller To Lead Final

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Colin_McGourty
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| 36 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Magnus Carlsen sacrificed a pawn on move four and went on to defeat GM Hikaru Nakamura in the first game of the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Final. It was a brilliant win that puts Carlsen a draw away from the title and $200,000, but Nakamura came agonizingly close to escaping before blundering just when salvation was in sight.

All the matches featured decisive action, with GM Fabiano Caruana taking the lead against GM Vincent Keymer in the battle for third, GM Arjun Erigaisi outplaying GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the duel for fifth, and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi winning an insane clash against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the fight for seventh.

The final day of the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam begins on Monday, April 14, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.

Standings

We have a leader and a player in a must-win position on Monday in all four matches. Image: Freestyle Chess.

Carlsen 1-0 Nakamura

The Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals began on the same day as the Paris marathon, with Nakamura questioning his life choices.

Carlsen, meanwhile, was in good spirits, saying he felt a lot better after feeling sick for the last couple of days. He found some time to interact with fans as he arrived at the venue.

The enthusiasm carried into the game, with Carlsen visiting the confessional three times during the first few moves. He discussed his plans, pointed out some opportunities to play Nxh7# smothered mate, and noted he was half-provoking Nakamura to play 3...g5.

Instead Nakamura was provoked into playing 3...e5!?, a move that radically prevented d4, at least for then. Carlsen responded with another pawn sacrifice, 4.b4!. 

The move was creative and strong, especially when backed up with another pawn sac two moves later, but what would make the position particularly fascinating was that both players liked what they got. Carlsen's knight got to h6, with some inventive play required to keep it there—here 13.Bb2! has the point that 13...Bxh6?? would be crushed by 14.Nxd5+!.

Nakamura said of the knight:

I suspect I was probably much better if not winning at some point early in the game. I could be lacking in objectivity, but I had the feeling when this knight was on h6, it should be very good for me, somehow. 

That perhaps explains why Nakamura seemed puzzled by many of Carlsen's moves, which in fact were all working to maintain an advantage—however precarious—for White.

Hikaru Nakamura felt he was winning early on. Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.

Nakamura regretted his decision to swap off queens, having missed that 19.Nf6! would follow and box in his king, though it's noteworthy that the move he had seen, 19.Nc3!, also gets the silicon stamp of approval.

It soon looked like a dream endgame for Carlsen, with GMs Judit Polgar and Peter Leko competing to praise White's position.

As on the previous day against Caruana, however, Carlsen combined brilliant concepts and moves with the occasional blunder. The world number-one missed a chance to play e4 when it was the one clear winning move, then on move 32 played it when slow, methodical play was the way to go. Nakamura pounced with 32...f5! and was suddenly right back in the game.       

With both players under five minutes, the climax came three moves later, when the most natural move in the world, 35...Rxh2, should have been a draw, despite some suffering ahead. Instead Nakamura played 35...Ba2?, which he called "just insane."

One move by Carlsen, 36.Bf8+!, and Nakamura raced through the stages of grief before resigning.

GM Rafael Leitao takes us through all the twists and turns of Carlsen's win below.

Magnus Carlsen's bold choices have worked out more often than not in Paris. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.

And here's Nakamura's own recap:

That means Nakamura must now win the second classical game to take the final to tiebreaks. He's not the only one in that boat.

3rd Place Final: Keymer 0-1 Caruana

The battle for third place is big for a couple of reasons. Firstly, in pure financial terms, there's $100,000 on offer for the winner, a sum that towers over the first prize of almost all non-freestyle chess events over the course of a chess year (the loser takes $60,000).

Secondly, there's the prize of automatically qualifying for the next Grand Slam, which will be held in Las Vegas in July. If another reason to watch the match were needed, this is also a repeat of the final in Weissenhaus, so that Caruana has a chance to take revenge. 

Caruana got some revenge for the final in Weissenhaus. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.

The U.S. star got off to a great start, since he neutralized Keymer out of the opening and then gradually took over in a position that felt as though it would liquidate into a draw.

Instead Keymer's knight got stranded, Caruana got the upper hand in a wild time-trouble stage, and then he eventually won an endgame position that may have been a fortress but was extremely hard to play with little time.

Keymer must now win with Black on Monday to keep his third-place hopes alive.

5th Place Final: Vachier-Lagrave 0-1 Arjun

Arjun Erigaisi is on a roll. Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.

The smoothest win of the day was for Arjun, who continued his brilliant form from the day before. This time there were no real brilliancies, but he seized the initiative early on against Vachier-Lagrave when he got to push his d-pawn, and then only grew the advantage, with a later exchange sacrifice not helping the Frenchman's cause. 

The heartrates also told the same story.

7th Place Final: Abdusattorov 0-1 Nepomniachtchi

Even seventh place is worth $30,000, but it felt like this was a game between two players who took their frustration at earlier setbacks out on each other in a wild clash. The complications were almost unfathomable, but in summary, Nepomniachtchi's all-or-nothing attack ultimately paid off, although White was at times completely winning.

Nepomniachtchi won a wild game against Abdusattorov. Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.

Here's the latter phase of the game, from Abdusattorov playing 26.Nd4!? and leaving three pieces, including his queen, en prise! 

Abdusattorov was a very late replacement for GM Hans Niemann and has acquitted himself well for most of the tournament, but he'll be hoping he can hit back on the final day and finish with a flourish!  

Nodirbek Abdusattorov is one of four players who need to win on demand on Monday. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.
How To Watch
You can watch the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Paris on Chess.Com or Chess24 YouTube, or Chess.com or Chess24 Twitch channels, as well as on GM Hikaru Nakamura's Kick channel. You can also check out the games on our dedicated events page. GMs Judit Polgar, Peter Leko, and Niclas Huschenbeth hosted the expert broadcast.

The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Paris is the second of five events on the multi-million dollar Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. The 12 players first play each other once in 10+10 rapid chess, with the bottom four eliminated from the fight for first and the top players choosing their opponents in the Knockout. Each knockout round consists of two-game 90+30 matches. In case of a tie, two 10+10 games are played. If still tied, two 5+2 games are played, then a single armageddon game. All games are played in freestyle chess.  

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Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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