Chess: Carlsen scores in Paris, leads Freestyle Grand Slam after two events
Magnus Carlsen (left) beat Hikaru Nakamura 1.5-0.5 in the final of the Paris leg of the Freestyle Grand Prix.
Photograph: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess
Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, scored a low-key triumph on Monday when he won the Paris leg of the $3.75m Freestyle Grand Slam by defeating his old rival and world No 2, USA's Hikaru Nakamura, by 1.5-0.5 in the final. It was patient attrition over the two games, worthy of a place in the Carlsen-David Howell book Grind like a Grandmaster.
Advertisement
The decisive first game had some technical errors, which the Norwegian described almost apologetically in his post-game interview. The rematch was more routine as the 34-year-old simplified to his goal of a drawn rook endgame and a move-40 handshake.
Carlsen now has the overall lead in the five-leg $3.75m Grand Slam which continues later in the year at Las Vegas, Delhi and Cape Town.
Related: Chess: Magnus Carlsen in form at Paris Freestyle after Hans Niemann drops out
Earlier, he displayed his creativity when he gave up his queen for three minor pieces in his quarter-final, and his versatility and his continuing hunger for more chess when, his day's work done in Paris, he took part in chess.com's weekly Titled Tuesday and made a clean sweep of all 11 games, a rare feat which he has achieved twice previously. This week, Carlsen did it again, winning Titled Tuesday with an unbeaten 10/11.
Advertisement
The openings in Freestyle are a treacherous swamp, where careless play can lead to a lost position within a dozen moves. Relevant experience helps, though. Freestyle has 960 different starting positions, but there have been cases where one of the 960 appeared in a previous tournament, and a GM has remembered it.
Some time in the first 20 or so moves, a Freestyle position often becomes recognisably similar to normal chess and the players can use their previous knowledge effectively. In Carlsen's Freestyle games, he spots this metamorphosis and transformation faster than his rivals, and that is one secret of his continued success.
A negative at Paris was the failure of the four Indians who have dominated classical chess in recent years. Only Arjun Erigaisi, who remained true to his attacking style and emerged in fifth place, did well, while Gukesh Dommaraju, the 18-year-old classical world champion, did worst, finishing 11th out of 12.
What happens to the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam in the coming months remains to be seen. Its third leg, scheduled for New York in late July, has been moved to Las Vegas and reduced from eight days to five, allowing two games a day in the interests of publicity. This means a faster time limit, from slow classical chess, as championed by Carlsen, to one-hour rapid games.
Advertisement
The change may also reflect the worsened economic climate. The Grand Slam series, which was projected to break even with the help of new trading partners by 2026, is financially backed by a $12m investment from the New York based venture capitalist firm Left Lane Capital, which is privately quoted but is still susceptible to market downturns and recessions. The pressures for Freestyle to achieve faster profitability, and wider support among the chess public and media, are increasing.
Ju Wenjun, the holder, won four games in succession against her demoralised challenger, Tan Zhongyi, to score a 6.5-2.5 victory in the $500,000 Women's World Championship match in Chongqing. Game seven was Tan's nadir as she allowed her a8 black bishop to be entombed by her own c6 pawn and a c5 white knight. Ju needed just a draw in Wednesday's ninth game (of 12) to take the crown for the fifth time in her career.
Ju has now equalled the title totals of Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze, both of Georgia, who each won five crowns between 1962 and 1988, The all-time record holder remains Vera Menchik, a Czech who lived most of her life in London. Menchik won eight titles between 1927 and 1939 before being killed by a German V1 bomb at her Clapham home in 1944.
Shreyas Royal, England's youngest ever grandmaster, scored his best performance so far in 2025 when he totalled 6.5/9 at the Reykjavik Open after sharing the lead two rounds from the finish. It brought a pairing with Iran's world No 31, Parham Maghsoodloo, which Royal lost in 17 moves due to 9…Bxc3+? (9..d6!) allowing the top seed's 12 Ba3! with decisive threats to d6.
Advertisement
Nigel Short, the 1993 world title challenger, is making a rare competitive appearance this week in the Bangkok Open, where his third round win started with the Grand Prix Attack and led to a devastating assault on his opponent's king.
England swept the board at last week's European Senior over-50 and over-65 Championships at Swidnica, Poland, last weekend, winning three team golds, one team bronze, and 14 individual medals. Both England 50+, led by Michael Adams, and England 65+, headed by John Nunn, won every match and neither lost a single game.
Such a feat would normally rank much higher in this column, but entries for the event were low both in quality and quantity. The European Seniors were staged only two months after the World Seniors in Prague, a popular venue, while many seniors have been deterred by Fide's overzealous Fair Play anti-cheating officials, which sparked a public rebuke by Malcolm Pein in Chess magazine.
BBC Two's Chess Masters: The Endgame reaches episode seven (of eight) on Easter Monday at 8pm. Audience numbers, supplied by Broadcast, remain rock solid at 600.000, 5% of the viewing audience, and indicative of a significant loyal fan base.
Advertisement
Next Monday's episode will include an appearance by Bodhana Sivanandan, the Harrow 10-year-old who has become globally famous. Sivanandan is likely to take on all six remaining contestants simultaneously, a feat which will be familiar to her. Here is how, at age eight, she defeated Harrow Chess Club 5-1.
What do retired grandmasters do? One answer, as explained here by GM Jonathan Levitt, is to write song lyrics about Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
3968: 1…Rf4! wins with the threat 2…g3 and 3…Qh2 mate. If 2 Qc3 Qh4 3 Qc8+ Kh7 and White has no defence to 4…g3.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
40 minutes ago
- New York Times
Wimbledon line judges being replaced was ‘inevitable,' says All England Lawn Tennis Club
The phasing out of line judges at Wimbledon was an 'inevitable' development, All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) chief executive Sally Bolton said Thursday. This year's Wimbledon will be the first in the tournament's 148-year history not to use line judges, a recognizable part of the event with their smart uniforms and crouched poses. It will instead rely on electronic line calling (ELC), as is used at the Australian and U.S. Opens. The French Open, where shots leave marks on the clay that can be inspected by the umpires, is the only Grand Slam that still uses line judges. Advertisement The tournament's pool of 300 judges has been condensed to 80 'match assistants,' two of whom will be assigned to each court. They will support the umpires in managing what happens on the court and are there as a backstop should ELC go down. Bolton said that the line judges understood the inevitability of their being replaced. 'I think they — and I wouldn't speak for them individually — probably recognise that with the evolution of the technology and the consistent change across many of the other tournaments that this is probably inevitable,' she said at a media briefing ahead of Wimbledon 2025. 'So I think for many of them they had expected this change to come along and for those that will be joining us for the Championships in the match assistant role obviously they're delighted still to be part of delivering the Championships.' ELC is compulsory at all ATP and mixed tour-level events. Discreet testing was carried out during last year's Wimbledon, where the ball tracking and line technology has been in place for more than 15 years. In 2007, Wimbledon used Hawk-Eye technology for the first time, allowing players to challenge line calls. ELC removes the need for challenges by making the calls in real time; players can request a replay of the call. 'The time is right for us to move on,' Bolton said. 'We absolutely value the commitment that those line umpires have provided to the Championships over many years. And we do have a significant number of them coming back in a new role as match assistants, so we're really pleased to have many of them still involved with delivering the championships.' ELC has generally been popular with the players, though there were some issues at the clay events this year where the marks left on the court were sometimes in conflict with the images being displayed by the technology. This will not be an issue on grass courts. Wimbledon has also announced the prize money pool for this year's event, with an increase of seven percent on 2024 to £53.5 million ($72.7 million), which is double the pot of 10 years ago. The two singles champions will each receive £3 million ($4.1 million) — the most of any Grand Slam, though the U.S. Open is yet to confirm its prize pots for this year's event. It's an 11.1 percent increase from last year. At the lower end of the tournament, there have been similar increases, with first-round losers receiving £66,000 (89,691), a 10 percent increase from last year. Doubles and wheelchair events have seen smaller increases. The increase in prize money for the singles events follows meetings between executives from the Grand Slams and leading players from both tours. Some of those players met with the Grand Slam representatives, including Bolton and AELTC chair Deborah Jevans, in Paris during the French Open. They both said it was important to continue that dialogue, but Jevans stressed the importance of looking at the 'bigger picture' around scheduling and burnout, and not just prize money. Jevans added that — having been one herself, once reaching the Wimbledon fourth round — she knew that 'tennis players, they're always going to, I think, ask for more money.' Jevans added that Wimbledon has no plans to become a 15-day event like the other Grand Slams. The tournament's priority is resolving the legal battle over their plans to build 39 new grass courts on the old Wimbledon Park golf course, which would almost triple the size of the grounds at the Wimbledon Championships and allow the AELTC to host qualifying on site, as the other majors do. Advertisement The Greater London Authority (GLA) granted the AELTC planning permission at a hearing in September 2024, but after appeals led by the Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) group, a judicial review will take place July 8 and July 9 of 2025, in which the AELTC and SWP will outline their arguments. The AELTC expects the judge to make their decision a few weeks later. A separate issue is the question of whether a statutory trust exists on the golf course land. After appealing to the courts for the case to be expedited, a separate hearing will be held on this matter in January 2026. The AELTC is desperate to press on with its expansion plans as it continues to lose ground on the other three majors. Jevans said that the need for the transformation 'becomes ever more apparent as we see our fellow Grand Slams staging fully integrated three-week events by welcoming many more spectators and staging charity and community events during the qualifying week and, crucially, providing the players with a stage benefiting their sporting excellence.' The Wimbledon main draw starts Monday June 30.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Wimbledon announces record $73M prize fund and $4M for singles champions
LONDON — Wimbledon's prize money has risen to a record 53.5 million pounds (about $73 million) and the singles champions will each earn three million pounds ($4 million), All England Club officials announced on Thursday. The total amount is 3.5 million pounds ($6.8 million) more than last year, an increase of 7% — and exactly twice the pot handed out to competitors at the grass-court Grand Slam 10 years ago.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Wimbledon announces record $73M prize fund and $4M for singles champions
LONDON (AP) — Wimbledon's prize money has risen to a record 53.5 million pounds (about $73 million) and the singles champions will each earn three million pounds ($4 million), All England Club officials announced on Thursday. The total amount is 3.5 million pounds ($6.8 million) more than last year, an increase of 7% — and exactly twice the pot handed out to competitors at the grass-court Grand Slam 10 years ago. Advertisement 'We're immensely proud of the fact that if you look back 10 years, you can see the increase over that period and 7% this year,' All England chair Deborah Jevans said. 'And we have listened to the players, we have engaged with the players.' The 2025 winners' checks represent an 11.1% jump on last year's prizes for the men's and women's singles champions and comes amid growing player demands for a bigger share of grand slam profits. Players who lose in the first round of singles will get 66,000 pounds, up 10% year on year. 'The focus on just the prize money at four events, the Grand Slams, does not get to the heart of what the challenge is for tennis,' Jevans added. Advertisement 'The challenge with tennis is the fact that the players don't have an offseason which they want, they have increasing injuries that they're speaking about, and we've always said that we as Wimbledon are willing to engage and talk with the tours to try and find solutions, and that door remains open.' Wimbledon starts on June 30 and runs until July 13. For the first time in the oldest Grand Slam, line judges will be replaced with electronic line-calling. ___ AP tennis:
