Bortnyk Survives Setback To Win A Second Friday

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk won Freestyle Friday on March 21 in what was the closest yet of the nine tournaments so far, but ultimately, his second win following one on January 31. And while Bortnyk lost in the final round, which created a five-way tie for first place, his tiebreaks remained best in the field. Also finishing on nine points were GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Denis Lazavik, Daniel Naroditsky, and Amin Tabatabaei, with Tabatabaei in the unfortunate position of finishing outside the money with the worst tiebreak scores.

GM Arjun Erigaisi, who entered the tournament having won it three times in a row, had another solid showing but finished 19th. A spot behind him was IM Karina Ambartsumova, taking home the women's prize in 20th after barely missing out on it last week.

Bortnyk built his lead by winning nine of the first 10 games, his only setback to that point coming against Naroditsky in round six. Bortnyk's successes included a shocking 10-move win over eventual second-place finisher Vachier-Lagrave—only in freestyle can one of the 25 highest-rated players in the world be pretty much dead lost on move two.

When Bortnyk won in the next round as well, it seemed that he might run away with the tournament. But Lazavik, who also won Titled Tuesday earlier this week, said not so fast. And speaking of not so fast, the game lasted for 102 moves before Lazavik won the endurance test.

The runaway was now chaos, as Lazavik would not be the only person to now move into a tie with Bortnyk. Vachier-Lagrave completed a recovery from his ninth-round disaster by winning in the final two rounds. GM Jeffery Xiong, who traded a piece for three pawns rather early on, was his victim in the 11th after that decision failed to pay off.

Naroditsky, who beat not only Bortnyk but GM Magnus Carlsen a round after that before dropping two games in a row, also won his last two to enter the top four. GM Matthias Bluebaum played the first moves of the final round well but erred once a middlegame was reached.

In the end, the largest tiebreak gaps came between first and second and between fourth and fifth, the two most important distinctions in terms of winning the tournament and winning a prize.

March 21 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Bortnyk $400, Vachier-Lagrave $250, Lazavik $150, Naroditsky $100, Ambartsumova $100.

Freestyle Friday is Chess.com's weekly tournament dedicated to Freestyle Chess for titled players. The tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time.