Undefeated Keymer Wins Weissenhaus Knockout

GM Vincent Keymer won the 2025 Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, and with it $200,000, after making a draw in his second classical game against GM Fabiano Caruana. Keymer neutralized the latter's tremendous effort with a pawn sacrifice in the opening. GM Magnus Carlsen won a second game against GM Javokhir Sindarov, even when a draw was enough, to finish in third.

GM Hikaru Nakamura beat GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov again to finish in fifth, while GM Alireza Firouzja made up for missing his win yesterday and defeated World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in the second classical game. Firouzja finishes in seventh, leaving Gukesh in eighth place and without a single win in Germany this year.

GM Levon Aronian had already won the consolation match for ninth place against GM Vladimir Fedoseev, 10th, on Monday. 

• Prizes & Standings
• Caruana ½-½ Keymer
• Carlsen 1-0 Sindarov
• Nakamura 1-0 Abdusattorov
• Gukesh 0-1 Firouzja

Prizes

 Main Bracket

5th-8th Place Bracket

The world numbers one, two, and three joined forces again to analyze the first starting position on Friday. The "new guard" team stayed intact for the second day as well, with Gukesh and Firouzja opting to go it alone. Of the three players pictured below, however, only Keymer would win his match. 

Curiously, not one of the four matches went to tiebreaks, making for an unexpectedly short day. It was still tense, of course, with the classical games being worth tens of thousands of dollars. 

Caruana ½-½ Keymer

The tournament could hardly have been smoother for Keymer, who convincingly won every match he played. He was undefeated against Firouzja, Carlsen, and Caruana. He closed out each match the same way: a win in the first game and a draw in the second.

Keymer played with an incredibly high accuracy of 96.4, and even without seeing this he was satisfied with the last game, saying, "I'm really, really happy also with the game itself. I think it was quite high level and also I'm very happy that I didn't need to go to tiebreaks!"

He told Take Take Take his feeling for the opening in Freestyle Chess seems to be his strength over others:

From what I could see my main strength has been the first two moves. Usually my intuition in terms of where the weaknesses are, where to put the pieces, and so on, has been quite right.

The first surprise already came on move one, when Keymer thought for 20 minutes on how to respond to 1.d4. He shared that his group agreed this was the most challenging, and he only saw problems in all variations. Eventually, he settled on 1.f5, one of the engine's top choices. After that, he felt comfortable.

"It's not so great because it doesn't really feel good, I just don't see any immediate problem! But I also didn't really know what else to do. That's why I spent so much time on move 1 because I felt if we make the wrong choice here we might get into a seriously bad position!" pic.twitter.com/1n1Z0TjldM

— chess24 (@chess24com) February 14, 2025

By the time Keymer played 4...Nhg6, he told Take Take Take he realized, "the only way I could lose this if I could mess up incredibly badly myself." Caruana's 6.c4!? pawn sacrifice was objectively dubious, but every Chess24 commentator praised it as a great winning try. Keymer reacted well and found the move of the day two moves later, 8...g5!!. "Otherwise I'm strategically busted," said Keymer. 

Caruana tried everything he could, including sacrificing the exchange on move 19, but the German GM grabbed it, achieved an advantage, and steered the game into "cannot lose" territory. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes this fantastic game below.

In the post-game interview, GMs Judit Polgar asked when was the moment Keymer felt like he hit his groove, that he was in great form. Unsurprisingly, it was the game he won against Carlsen: "Probably winning that first game against Magnus after kind of giving away the advantage, because usually that's the moment he strikes back."

And as for how he brought himself to play so dynamically in a game he only had to draw, he responded that he had no choice: "I think today just playing solid was never an option... if I would be afraid to go for anything potentially dangerous then I would long-term lose the game, I think."

I think today just playing solid was never an option.

—Vincent Keymer

Keymer wins $200,000 while Caruana still makes $140,000 as runner-up. We will see both players at the next Grand Slam event in Paris. 

Carlsen 1-0 Sindarov

"I don't go into tournaments hoping for third place, but it's a nice consolation prize," said Carlsen on the Chess.com broadcast after finishing in third and thus bagging $100k and a ticket to the next event. He admitted that Keymer just played better than anyone else: "If you judge by the quality of the play in the classical portion, I think Vincent was the best."

Needing just a draw with the white pieces, Carlsen was never in trouble. He was in fact better for the entire game after Sindarov, needing to keep tension on the board, ceded space to his opponent. The highlight was certainly Carlsen's two knight sacrifices, 24.Nxf4!! and 32.Nd4!!, both using the long diagonal against Black's king. 

Another knightmare for Sindarov!https://t.co/u7kZhrPyMS#FreestyleChess https://t.co/lju7cIO9rl pic.twitter.com/bKuMoIRzmR

— chess24 (@chess24com) February 14, 2025

The other memorable aspect of this game is that Carlsen was clearly trying to win, even when he had a draw in the bag. He explained the rationale:

The thing is I feel that when we're playing in this format every game is sort of an event in itself since it's a completely new position. So it feels more natural just to play it out because you know we are entertainers, one, and it's also supposed to be fun to play!

 It's also supposed to be fun to play!

—Magnus Carlsen

Carlsen finished the tournament with two wins, which always gives a good aftertaste. He said, "Most of all, I'm happy that I'm learning and that my game is in a decent state. With that, I should have every chance of doing well in Paris."

As for his biggest takeaway from the week in Weissenhaus: Freestyle Chess is wild!

I think the main learning I take away is that every time you feel like you know a little bit about this game, that you feel like you can recognize some patterns, you feel like there are a couple of rules you can follow, then exceptions arise and you can just throw it out the window.

Nakamura 1-0 Abdusattorov

After a disappointing previous match against Sindarov, where Nakamura was winning in almost every one of the games but still lost, the American GM finished on a high note: winning both games against Abdusattorov.

Compared to his countryman, Abdusattorov played the same strategy but better: he ceded space to his opponent to keep the game complicated. The game was actually just equal for a long time, but a one-move blunder released the tension like pricking a hole in a balloon. 

14...Rfc8??, played with 56 minutes left, fell for a one-move double attack. Nakamura made absolutely zero mistakes in putting this one away after that.

Despite being in a better mood, Nakamura's opinion about retirement hasn't changed. He told Take Take Take, "I don't feel different at all... this is something that's been on my mind for a long time now."

He talked about working "smarter, not harder," and about accepting when one is past their peak. For now, he'll still be playing chess, but classical chess won't be a priority: "When I compare the amount of work I'm putting in versus the younger kids, it's not at the same level. So for me my biggest focus I would say is on the Freestyle series but also on the upcoming qualifiers for the Esports World Cup."

You can listen to Nakamura's thoughts about the game he won in the recap below.

Gukesh 0-1 Firouzja

Firouzja scored his first win of the Knockout in the very last game, against the world champion, to finish seventh place and pocket $30,000. This left Gukesh with $20,000 in eighth, without a win in Weissenhaus. 

Gukesh, behind the white pieces, was the only player to start with 1.f4—but Firouzja equalized comfortably (at least!) by move five, with 5...Bb6. Trading off this bishop for its counterpart was a plan we saw in the other games as well.

At some point, Gukesh had to pull the breaks and trade queens with 13.Qe3. Instead, 13.Rd1 allowed the brilliant king move 13.Kc7!! and the black knights jumped into action. First targeting the base pawn on e4, then the king, Firouzja broke through.

That concludes the tournament in Weissenhaus! Below are six of the players we will see in Paris, plus an additional six joining the field to make it 12 in total. You can catch that event on April 8-15. 

Previous coverage:

• Weissenhaus Day 7: Keymer Leads Vs. Caruana In Final; Carlsen, Nakamura Also Win
• Weissenhaus Day 6: Keymer Defeats Carlsen, Caruana Wins Marathon Vs. Sindarov
• Weissenhaus Day 5: Keymer Beats Carlsen In Semifinal Game 1
• Weissenhaus Day 4: Sindarov Upsets Nakamura, Joins Carlsen, Caruana, Keymer In Semifinals
• Weissenhaus Day 3: Carlsen, Caruana, Keymer Win; Nakamura Lets Sindarov Escape
• Weissenhaus Day 2: Firouzja Wins Rapid As Aronian, Fedoseev Knocked Out
• Weissenhaus Day 1: Caruana, Sindarov Beat Carlsen To Lead Weissenhaus Grand Slam
• Play-In KO 2: Fedoseev Joins Carlsen & Co. In Weissenhaus After Winning Armageddon Thriller
• Play-In KO 1: Nepomniachtchi In Semifinals After Niemann Blunders Mate-In-1
• Play-In Swiss: Fedoseev, Lazavik, Sindarov, Bortnyk Keep Weissenhaus Hopes Alive
• Chess.com Officially Partners With Freestyle Chess To Support 2025 Grand Slam Tour
• $12 Million Raised For 'Revolutionary' Freestyle Series Of Tournaments