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6 Things We Learned, 1 Thing We Already Knew — Grenke Chess Freestyle Open
Carlsen accepts the check from Freestyle Chess visionary Jan Henric Buettner. Photo: Stev Bonhage.

6 Things We Learned, 1 Thing We Already Knew — Grenke Chess Freestyle Open

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NM AnthonyLevin
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| 73 | Chess Event Coverage

Just a day ago, GM Magnus Carlsen achieved the seemingly impossible (again). This time, he won the 2025 Grenke Chess Freestyle Open with a perfect 9/9 score. While his stellar performance stole headlines during the five-day event, we review seven conclusions we can draw from the Freestyle and Open A tournaments, which went from April 17-21. 

  1. World's Biggest Chess Festival Breaks New Ground
  2. Carlsen's Era Isn't Finished Yet
  3. Other Elite Players Struggled
  4. Caruana, Arjun Made Comebacks
  5. Maghsoodloo Is Back
  6. IM Aswath Wins Ahead Of 31 GMs In Classical Event
  7. IM Lu Miaoyi Makes Top Score After 1st Round Loss

1. World's Biggest Chess Festival Breaks New Ground

The world's most attended chess festival continues to grow. While last year brought more than two and a half thousand people to Karlsruhe, this year saw even that record broken with over 3,000. 

While the regular tournament stayed the same (with three rating sections in a nine-round open), this year's Freestyle Chess event was new. It replaced the previously held Grenke Chess Classic, which was a closed round-robin tournament featuring elite players. 297 players participated in the A group of the Freestyle event (you had to be rated 1950+), who would otherwise rarely have a chance to play alongside—or against—the world's best players, including Carlsen. 

You can fly through the massive playing hall in the drone video provided below.

The Freestyle event was certainly the first of its kind, a nine-round open event with Chess960 and a classical time control of 90 minutes for each side plus a 30-second increment. An extra quirk, never seen before, was that before round five players could switch from the open tournament to the Freestyle one, a provision that several players took advantage of, including top seed GM Awonder Liang. (Unfortunately, he was paired with the guillotine Carlsen, in round six. We know how that went.)

You can see the organizers' post-event video compilation below.

2. Carlsen's Era Isn't Finished Yet

If there's one thing on this list that we already knew, it's that Carlsen is the world's number-one chess player at this moment. How many times do we have to be reminded?

While he's less active in regular, classical chess, he still proves his dominance in speed chess and Chess960 events. Three years after giving up his classical world champion title, his 9/9 score showed that his era of dominance isn't over yet.

Carlsen noted that he only played one 2700+ GM, Vincent Keymer, though if we're looking at the live rating list, that's not exactly true. The week before this tournament, GM Parham Maghsoodloo won the 2025 Reykjavik Open and broke 2700 again on the live rating list (he's at 2703). Credit should be given for defeating seven grandmasters in total.

People can argue whether his tournament victory is comparable to a "real" classical tournament, as opposed to Chess960. Regardless of that, we can all probably agree that this was a good performance. Some go as far as to say it's the best ever (assuming we can compare a performance in an unrated, Chess960 tournament to a rated, classical one).

3. Other Elite Players Struggled

Carlsen's two-points-above-the-field result is further elevated when you compare it to that of his peers, in the world top-10 or top-20. They struggled early on, especially on day two, when top seeds like GMs Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave all lost games (just to name a few). It could have been even worse, for example, as Caruana only survived (and won) against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva from a losing position when she blundered.

Commentators GM Peter Leko and IM Lawrence Trent talked at several points about whether Chess960 levels the playing field, whether the absence of opening theory gives the underdogs a better chance. The jury's still out, as we will have to see more events like this played out, though the playing field wasn't exactly "leveled" when it came to upsetting Carlsen this time around.

4. Caruana, Arjun Made Comebacks

Despite early losses, Caruana and GM Arjun Erigaisi had the best comebacks of any player in the top-20. Caruana lost in round three, against GM Etienne Bacrot, but then won four of his next six games to finish in the big tie of players on seven points. Arjun lost in round four against his countryman GM Aryan Chopra, but remarkably won four of his last five games to end on the same score.

Fortunately for them, both Caruana and Arjun have already qualified for the Las Vegas event, no matter their performance in Germany.

GM Leinier Dominguez also deserves credit for finishing on the same score, though he didn't have to "come back." He never lost a game; instead, he made four draws along with his five wins. He, Carlsen, and GM Alexey Sarana were the only players in the top-10 who went undefeated across the nine rounds.

Carlsen observes Sarana vs. Caruana in round eight, which ended in a draw. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Dominguez's last draw, against Maghsoodloo, was an incredibly dramatic game, as it nearly stood between the Iranian GM and his qualification to the event in Las Vegas. That was our Game of the Day on Monday and you can review GM Rafael Leitao's annotations below. (More on this game in the next point.)

Dominguez had a strong, if a bit of a lucky, finish. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Though he finished on 6.5, GM Wesley So also had a nice comeback after losing in round three against GM Dmitrij Kollars, his only loss of the tournament.

So finished with 6.5/9. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

5. Maghsoodloo Is Back

Twenty-four-year-old Maghsoodloo, who for the first time breached the 2700 mark in 2021 and reached his all-time high of 2742 in 2023, is Iran's number-one player, after GM Alireza Firouzja moved to France. Since then, his rating took a dip, reaching a low of 2674 at the start of this year.

But the Iranian GM burst back onto the scene in April. In the Austrian Bundesliga, he won four straight games. Then he flew to the Reykjavik Open, where he finished in clear first with 7.5/9. Then he finished as runner-up in the Grenke Freestyle event. Even though this was an unrated event, it is another strong showing by the imaginative fighter.

It worked out for Maghsoodloo after all. Photo: Stev Bonhage.

In his final game against Dominguez, a win would have meant a sole second-place finish. When he drew that game, he was reportedly in tears.

Maghsoodloo realizes he won't win. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

There was some confusion after the round whether the seven players on seven points would play a tiebreaker at a future date or whether the Buchholz would be used. Ultimately, he won with the best Buchholz score.

6. IM Aswath Wins Ahead Of 31 GMs In Classical Event

Indian IM Aswath S won the highest section of the regular open event and earned his first grandmaster norm with a 2779 performance. GM Brandon Jacobson also finished on the same number of points but had a lower Buchholz score. 

It's an impressive individual score for the 16-year-old international master, but it also means we have yet another Indian talent to watch out for in the coming years. He beat three grandmasters in the second half of the tournament, including Jacobson in round five.

7. IM Lu Miaoyi Makes Top Score After 1st Round Loss

IM Lu Miaoyi, who also played in the Reykjavik Open and gained five rating points there, participated in the open A event. She lost her first game against a player rated 2091, but then she went into overdrive for the next eight rounds.

Lu Miaoyi made a great comeback. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

She finished as the top-performing woman (or girl) with 6.5/9, and gained another nine points. Another example showing that a round-one loss doesn't have to be a catastrophe. Will she be China's next grandmaster? Well, she's still 15 years old.

WGM Josefine Heinemann (who transferred over to Freestyle Chess after round four) and Assaubayeva were the top-scoring women in the Freestyle event, with 6.5/9. Assaubayeva, who nearly defeated Caruana in round two, never lost another game.

That wraps up the Grenke Chess tournaments, and we look forward to seeing more Chess960 played from July 15-19 in Las Vegas! The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour concludes in Cape Town, South Africa, in December.

How to review?

You can rewatch the broadcast on Chess24's YouTube or Twitch channels. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated events page. 

Round 9:

The live broadcast was hosted by GM Peter Leko and IM Lawrence Trent.

The Grenke Freestyle Chess Open was a classical tournament in the Freestyle Chess (Chess960) format that determines one of the 12 participants of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour event taking place in Las Vegas. The event took place alongside a regular classical tournament, the Grenke Chess Open. The Freestyle Chess event was a nine-round Swiss with a time control of 90+30 for the entire game, with a prize fund of €225,000 and the chance to win Freestyle Grand Slam Tour points.

Previous coverage:

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