Bortnyk Outlasts Carlsen, Nakamura In Freestyle Friday
For much of the second-ever Freestyle Friday on January 31, it seemed that GM Magnus Carlsen would defend his victory from last week. After starting 9/9 on January 24, Carlsen started 8/8 this Friday. In the end, however, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk took the throne out of today's field of 422 players, winning outright after defeating GM Sam Sevian in the final round. GM Parham Maghsoodloo finished second ahead of GM Hikaru Nakamura on tiebreaks, while Carlsen came in fifth.
Oh Yeah! pic.twitter.com/k9yvIMl5BI
— Oleksandr Bortnyk (@BortnykChess) January 31, 2025
Not only was Carlsen winning every game at first, he didn't need more than 36 moves until his eighth victory. Wins like this one in round seven, which took 23 moves with Black—albeit in one of the most balanced opening positions in Freestyle/Chess960—were more typical. The game depicts a challenge that even extremely strong blitz grandmasters like GM Minh Le face in 960: unusual starting patterns, which in this case led to Le cutting off a key diagonal on move four, forcing him to give up an exchange to avoid losing his queen.
By the ninth round, it was time for Carlsen to face Nakamura. They matched up last week as well when Carlsen won to extend his score to 9/9. This time, the story was different. According to the computer, Carlsen was still not completely lost in the final position despite facing a nasty fork, but needed to find 29...Qh3 instead of running out of time, and even then wasn't in great shape.
The result threw the standings into chaos, with a six-way tie and two rounds to play. For the second straight week, Bortnyk beat Carlsen in their individual matchup, and this time, it helped set up a three-way tie between himself, Nakamura, and Maghsoodloo after the latter beat Le and Nakamura beat GM Sergei Lobanov.
I did again ! Beat Magnus in round 10 in Freestyle Friday!
— Oleksandr Bortnyk (@BortnykChess) January 31, 2025
With no one else within half a point and Nakamura and Maghsoodloo playing each other, only one of those three could win the tournament at this point. Those two played each other and would ultimately make a draw, securing a top-four finish for each but opening the door for Bortynk's outright victory. A 72-move slugfest against Sevian followed, and, in the end, Bortnyk had claimed the second edition of Freestyle Friday.
January 31 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 9 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2883 | 10 | 67.5 | |
| 2 | 18 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2755 | 9.5 | 73.5 | |
| 3 | 2 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 2944 | 9.5 | 69.5 | |
| 4 | 8 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2856 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 5 | 5 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 2920 | 9 | 74 | |
| 6 | 293 | IM | @AlmasRakhmatullaev | Almas Rakhmatullaev | 1638 | 9 | 60.5 | |
| 7 | 29 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 2617 | 9 | 54.5 | |
| 8 | 13 | GM | @Dedic8 | Sergei Lobanov | 2738 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 9 | 15 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2705 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 10 | 22 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2658 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 11 | 191 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 1712 | 8.5 | 59 | |
| 12 | 123 | IM | @Natalya_Buksa | Nataliya Buksa | 2046 | 8.5 | 49.5 | |
| 13 | 32 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2626 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 14 | 17 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2726 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 15 | 245 | IM | @DonkyDonkyDonkey | Eray Kilic | 1699 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 16 | 19 | GM | @Adham_Fawzy | Adham Fawzy | 2711 | 8 | 67 | |
| 17 | 34 | IM | @PiliposyanRobertChess | Robert Piliposyan | 2580 | 8 | 65.5 | |
| 18 | 229 | FM | @ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 1720 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 19 | 46 | GM | @xiaotong2008 | Xiao Tong | 2509 | 8 | 64 | |
| 20 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 2902 | 8 | 63 |
Prizes: Bortnyk $400, Maghsoodloo $250, Nakamura $150, GM Denis Lazavik $100 (fourth place), IM Nataliya Buksa $100 (12th place, top woman).
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.
