That's Three In A Row For Arjun
It was naturally a lot harder than winning one game of tic-tac-toe, but GM Arjun Erigaisi has nonetheless won three consecutive Freestyle Friday tournaments. Arjun, who is not a Chess960 specialist per se, is sure treating this variant as a personal playground of late, winning all three tournaments without needing tiebreaks. And this time, he won by a full point instead of half of one.
Still, the end came suddenly for his main competition, GM Denis Lazavik. With the two alone in a tie for first place entering the final round and playing each other for the top spot, Lazavik was doing quite well... until he simply blundered his queen.
Lazavik was still able to finish in second place on the strength of performances such as his eighth-round victory over GM Alexander Grischuk, who had been gunning for first place before then.
Lazavik ended up taking his spot on tiebreaks over GMs Christopher Yoo and Vugar Rasulov, who also scored nine points. No one who scored at least nine walked away without some cash.
But it was Arjun who took the most, losing only back in round six against Grischuk, and otherwise winning his other 10 games. The round before the sudden victory over Lazavik, Arjun came out ahead of his compatriot—and, right, the classical word champion, too—GM Gukesh Dommaraju on time. Another notable game was his recovery from the loss to Grischuk, in which Arjun won against another countryman, IM Harshavardhan G B.
GM Magnus Carlsen streamed, just like he did Titled Tuesday earlier in the week, and finished in 14th place. Third-place Yoo was one of the players who beat him.
For the women's prize, Ukraine's IM Nataliya Buksa beat out IM Karina Ambartsumova by one spot.
March 14 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 13 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2687 | 10 | 70.5 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2748 | 9 | 70.5 | |
| 3 | 20 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2590 | 9 | 70.5 | |
| 4 | 19 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2578 | 9 | 70 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 2790 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 6 | 32 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 2490 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
| 7 | 90 | GM | @GroovyKettle | Robby Kevlishvili | 2013 | 8 | 75.5 | |
| 8 | 17 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 2606 | 8 | 71 | |
| 9 | 38 | GM | @LionTheLeon_06 | Leon Luke Mendonca | 2402 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 10 | 15 | GM | @GukeshDommaraju | Gukesh D | 2602 | 8 | 68 | |
| 11 | 98 | CM | @Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 1911 | 8 | 57 | |
| 12 | 84 | FM | @ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 2001 | 8 | 56.5 | |
| 13 | 14 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 2590 | 8 | 55.5 | |
| 14 | 11 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2635 | 7.5 | 73 | |
| 15 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 2844 | 7.5 | 69.5 | |
| 16 | 49 | GM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 2276 | 7.5 | 69.5 | |
| 17 | 30 | GM | @fireheart92 | Adhiban Baskaran | 2478 | 7.5 | 65 | |
| 18 | 64 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 2129 | 7.5 | 59.5 | |
| 19 | 71 | FM | @bubeliang | Havard Haug | 2100 | 7.5 | 57.5 | |
| 20 | 58 | GM | @Aygehovit1992 | Nikita Matinian | 2142 | 7.5 | 53.5 | |
| 27 | 83 | IM | @Natalya_Buksa | Nataliya Buksa | 1955 | 7 | 54.5 |
Prizes: Arjun $400, Lazavik $250, Yoo $150, Rasulov $100, Buksa $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.
