Teenage Prodigy Wins Freestyle Friday
GM Sina Movahed, a 14-year-old chess prodigy out of Iran (whose name seems to befit a chess player), won Freestyle Friday on April 25. For the first time in a month, only nine points were needed for victory, as Movahed won out on tiebreaks ahead of GMs Sam Sevian and Magnus Carlsen. Movahed's victory comes a week after finishing in fourth place on April 18.
Most grandmasters remain underrated at Chess960, and Movahed is only rated 1843 even after his win this week, which meant his earlier pairings were possibly a little more difficult than with a proper rating, and so he lost in round three to GM Gleb Dudin. Besides that, however, Movahed won every game except for draws against the same two players whose tiebreaks he beat, Sevian and Carlsen. In between those two draws came a 10th-round win over two-time Freestyle Friday winner GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, which put Movahed in a two-way tie with Sevian for the tournament lead.
Movahed and Sevian's ensuing draw let Carlsen catch up, although his tiebreaks were the worst of the three. Carlsen, who lost in round two, also made consecutive draws in rounds eight and nine before taking his last two games, including what turned into a somewhat messy rook endgame against IM Robert Piliposyan in the finale.
Sevian also lost early on (round three) before two late draws were his only other blemishes. His final win, a comeback victory in the 10th round against fourth-place-to-be GM Fabiano Caruana, ultimately earned Sevian second place.
The final prizewinner was WGM Valentina Golubenko, who earned the women's prize in 36th overall place.
April 25 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 114 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 1851 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 2762 | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 2791 | 9 | 61.5 | |
| 4 | 5 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 2632 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 5 | 8 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2583 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 6 | 43 | IM | @tuschessCM1 | Svyatoslav Bazakutsa | 2155 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 7 | 16 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 2503 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 8 | 44 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 2178 | 8.5 | 57 | |
| 9 | 31 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2266 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 10 | 124 | IM | @scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 1791 | 8 | 69 | |
| 11 | 18 | IM | @PiliposyanRobertChess | Robert Piliposyan | 2447 | 8 | 65.5 | |
| 12 | 21 | GM | @Annawel | Jules Moussard | 2414 | 8 | 61 | |
| 13 | 59 | FM | @Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 1991 | 8 | 53 | |
| 14 | 34 | CM | @Nicki2013 | Nikolay Kleimenov | 1888 | 8 | 51 | |
| 15 | 32 | GM | @Rikikits | Maxime Lagarde | 2338 | 7.5 | 71 | |
| 16 | 81 | FM | @ValentunHulka | Valentyn Hulka | 1911 | 7.5 | 63.5 | |
| 17 | 45 | GM | @Jumbo | Rinat Jumabayev | 2141 | 7.5 | 63.5 | |
| 18 | 69 | CM | @Tikhon_Popov | Tikhon Popov | 1943 | 7.5 | 57.5 | |
| 19 | 83 | FM | @Hattori-Hanzo78 | Jan Zienkiewicz | 1883 | 7.5 | 57 | |
| 20 | 49 | GM | @DeviatkinAndrey | Andrey Devyatkin | 2060 | 7.5 | 55 | |
| 21 | 74 | GM | @VMikhalevski | Victor Mikhalevski | 1912 | 7.5 | 50.5 | |
| 22 | 68 | IM | @LeninGuerra | Lenin Guerra Tulcan | 1933 | 7.5 | 48.5 | |
| 23 | 17 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2448 | 7 | 73.5 | |
| 24 | 24 | GM | @WoodlandMagic | Gleb Dudin | 2363 | 7 | 71.5 | |
| 25 | 141 | GM | @Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 1683 | 7 | 69.5 | |
| 36 | 162 | WGM | @GoValya | Valentina Golubenko | 1583 | 6.5 | 64.5 |
Prizes: Movahed $400, Sevian $250, Carlsen $150, Caruana $100, Assaubayeva $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.
Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.
