Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi, Niemann, Keymer Among 19 Players On 3/3 At Grenke

19 players are still on a perfect score after three rounds in the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open, including big names such as GMs Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hans Niemann, and Vincent Keymer. In round 3, Carlsen seemed to be close to dropping his first half-point when the strong-playing GM Maxime Lagarde blundered and lost after all.

Two female players are also in that group with a 3/3 score: GM Harika Dronavalli, who beat GM Awonder Liang in round 3, and IM Meruert Kamalidenova, who first won against GM Rauf Mamedov and then also beat GM Karthikeyan Murali today. Another surprising result was FM Danny Yi beating GM Maciej Klekowski.

Round four will be on Saturday, April 4, starting at 4 a.m. ET / 10:00 CEST / 1:30 p.m. IST, followed by round five on the same day at 10 a.m. ET / 16:00 CEST / 7:30 p.m. IST.

All Players on 3/3

Round 2 results (top 10 boards)

The position for the second round was #427.

Carlsen, who explained his morning game in the studio afterward with GM Peter Leko, said: “I found that the starting position, I cannot tell you whether we’ve had it before or not, but it looked very similar to something I’ve seen several times.”

It was instructive to hear the Norwegian explain that bishops on d1 or e1 in Chess960 are really badly placed and that even the move 1.d3 here (as played by GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Nihal Sarin in this round!) is an option to get that bishop out as soon as possible.

Check out the final moments of World no.1 Magnus Carlsen defeating Kazakhstan no.2 Woman Alua Nurman in Round 2 of the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open! Both Magnus and Alua were surrounded by fans for selfies and autographs as they were leaving.

Video: @ram_abhyudaya pic.twitter.com/grl3Iuvr7s

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) April 3, 2026

Like in the first round, Carlsen's win was not a walkover. He praised his opponent, the second female player for him in as many rounds: 

“I guess it was like 25 moves without exchanging pawns. You kind of want it to be the way that, once I make the first pawn move with …f7-f5 at some point, then everything is prepared and the game is over. Of course, she is a very good player. I’ve seen her beat very strong grandmasters. It’s never as easy as you think, that’s the main takeaway.”

Nepomniachtchi showed an interesting opening concept when he played 1.d4 and 2.d5, which should have been followed up with 3.d6!. But even without that third pawn push, things went quite smoothly for the Russian grandmaster:

GM Nihal Sarin was one of the players who started with the modest 1.d3 that was discussed by Carlsen and Leko. It was good enough to beat a Dutch IM in 17 moves:

Another quick win was scored by GM Amin Tabatabaei, who played the same opening moves as Nepomniachtchi and then found some beautiful tactics to dazzle his opponent:

In somewhat dramatic fashion, the Kazakhstani IM Kamalidenova managed to beat Mamedov from Azerbaijan after the latter tried to castle in the wrong way on move eight. Because he touched his rook first, he had to move his rook which lost an exchange. After many moves he managed to reach a drawn rook endgame but failed to hold it.

Round 3 results (top 10 boards)

The position for round three was #53.

It was Nepomniachtchi who was the first player to reach 3/3. The Russian GM beat the Dutch veteran GM Loek van Wely, who must have been kicking himself to lose this game after having the advantage on move 17 in a position with a symmetrical pawn structure. But with so many pieces on the board, it was not easy to play and according to the engine, "KingLoek" made four mistakes in a row.

GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed the Game of the Day below:

A few boards lower, there was another Dutch grandmaster who had more success. GM Benjamin Bok faced an out-of-form GM Aravindh Chithambaram and totally outplayed his opponent with the black pieces:

Niemann won a smooth game in this round against the Ukrainian grandmaster GM Olexandr Bortnyk, who couldn't find the right setup in the opening and never really had a chance.

Carlsen's win eventually came somewhat unexpectedly and was a tough loss for Lagarde, who played really well. A draw would have been the "correct" result but chess knows no justice, only good or bad moves.

At the end of the round, one more top grandmaster joined the group of players on 3/3, and in dramatic fashion. Keymer beat GM Georg Meier deep in the endgame after overstretching and facing a dead lost position, before snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. If there was any game where his trainer Leko was close to getting a heart attack from giving commentary on his pupil, it was this one.

We saw Kamalidenova beating Mamedov in the morning round. Here's how she won her afternoon game as well, against another grandmaster:

Speaking of female players, it's worth reminding that the three highest-placed women in the field qualify for the FIDE Freestyle Women's Chess World Championship 2026. Alongside Kamalidenova, Harika has good chances. Liang blundered horribly, which helped her to get to 3/3:

Meanwhile, there are still 46 players on a perfect 3/3 in the regular open tournament. Players are permitted to switch to the Freestyle Chess group before round five, so that tournament might grow bigger tomorrow.

Below are the pairings for round four of the Freestyle Chess event.

Round 4 Pairings | Top 10

(See all pairings here.)

How to watch?

The Grenke Freestyle Chess Open is a classical tournament in the Freestyle Chess (Chess960) format that serves as a qualifier for the FIDE Freestyle Women's Chess World Championship 2026 and the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027. The event takes place alongside a regular classical tournament, the Grenke Chess Open. The Freestyle Chess event is a nine-round Swiss with a time control of 90+30 for the entire game, with a prize fund of over 200,000 euros.

See also:

• Day 1: Carlsen On 10/10 As Grenke Chess Festival Takes Off In Karlsruhe
• Carlsen, Keymer, Abdusattorov Headline Massive Grenke Chess Field