The Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam was a 10-player

Chess960 Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. It was introduced by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening prepa ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

that took place in Wangels, Germany from 7 February to 14 February 2025. It was the first leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments being held throughout 2025.

Background

After the

Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge was an 8-player over-the-board classical Chess960 tournament that took place at Gut Weißenhaus in Wangels, Germany from February 9–16, 2024. It was the first major Chess960 tournament that used classical ...

took place as a stand-alone tournament at the Weißenhaus resort in 2024, the event was renamed for 2025 and became part of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in 2025 as its first leg. The format remained similar to 2024 with the number of participants being increased to 10.

Qualification

All qualification matches were played

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and were hosted by

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

Open qualifiers

All non- titled players started qualification in one of two separate open qualifier events, which were held on January 4 and January 5 respectively. 196 players participated, with the top three players from each event advancing to the Swiss stage.

Swiss stage

248 players participated in the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

stage held on January 6. It was open to all titled players. The top four players,

Vladimir Fedoseev Vladimir Vasilyevich Fedoseev (; born 16 February 1995) is a Russian chess grandmaster playing for Slovenia. He is the reigning European champion in Rapid chess and Chess960. He competed in the Chess World Cup in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023. Ca ...

Denis Lazavik Denis Lazavik (born 17 November 2006) is a Belarusian chess grandmaster. Chess career In December 2018, Lazavik was part of the Belarus team (alongside Vyacheslav Zarubitsky, Olga Badelko, Maksim Tsaruk and Artyom Sinyavsky) in the World Youth ...

, Javokhir Sindarov and

Olexandr Bortnyk Olexandr Bortnyk (born 18 October 1996) is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2015, at the age of 19. A former chess prodigy, Bortnyk is considered one of the strongest online players in Blitz and Bullet. In 201 ...

advanced to the 16-player knockout stage.

Knockout stage

Twelve players of the Freestyle Chess Players Club were invited directly to the knockout stage, held on January 7 and 8. They were sorted by their December 2024 classical FIDE rankings and seeded accordingly from 1-12.

beat Javokhir Sindarov in the final in an

armageddon Armageddon ( ; ; ; from ) is the prophesied gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, according to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Armageddon is variously interpreted as either a literal or a ...

game, after a 2–2 tie, and qualified for the Grand Slam. Following

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

's withdrawal, Sindarov also qualified. ''Note: The player listed first played as white in the first game of the match. Scores between two players adding up to 2 indicate a win under

rapid Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

time controls; adding up to 4, a win under

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

time controls; and adding up to 5, a win in armageddon with bidding.''

Main event

Participants

The qualifiers to the first leg were as follows:

Round-robin stage

The event began with a

round-robin stage, with a

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time cont ...

of 10 minutes with an

increment Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) * Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming * Incremental computing * Incremental backup ...

of 10 seconds per move. The players finishing 1-8 in the round robin stage qualified for the classical

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

stage. On the first day of the tournament, Javokhir Sindarov remained undefeated, winning four out of his five games, including a victory against

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

. By the end of the day, he was tied with

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history. Born in Mia ...

after their fifth-round game resulted in a draw. On the second day,

Alireza Firouzja Alireza Firouzja (, ; born 18 June 2003) is an Iranian and French Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE Elo rating system, rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carls ...

defeated Sindarov in the final round, securing first place in the round-robin on tiebreaks and earning the right to be the first to select his opponent for the quarterfinals.

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian (; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster who has represented the United States since 2021. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at the age of 17. He is a former world rapid and blit ...

and

were eliminated from the main competition and were set to compete against each other in a match for ninth place.

Knockout stage

Matches in the knockout stage consisted of two games using a

of 90 minutes with an

of 30 seconds per move. In the event of a tie, the tiebreak is two 10+10 rapid games followed by two 5+2 blitz games if the tie persists, and then one

game with bidding. The players who finished 1st-4th in the rapid round robin stage picked their opponents from the players who finished 5th-8th. They also chose whether they would play as white or black in the first game.

5th-8th Place

The four losers from the quarterfinal round above competed in the 5th-to-8th-place bracket.

9th-10th Place

''Note: The player listed first played as white in the first game of the match. Scores between two players adding up to 2 indicate a win under normal time controls; adding up to 4, a win under

time controls; adding up to 6, a win under

time controls; and adding up to 7, a win in armageddon with bidding.''

Final classification

Tour standings after the Grand Slam

Note: Only the top five positions are included.

Notes

References

{{Freestyle Chess Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 in chess 2025 in German sport February 2025 sports events in Germany Chess in Germany