Keymer Edges Out Vachier-Lagrave On Tiebreak, Wins Grenke Freestyle Open

Finishing with two draws on the final day was just enough for GM Vincent Keymer to win the 60,000 euro first prize at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open and qualify for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle World Championship. The 21-year-old German grandmaster edged out GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on tiebreak after both had finished on 7.5/9.

GM Magnus Carlsen was held to a draw in the final round by GM Aryan Chopra and the two finished in a tie for third place with five other players. GM Harika Dronavalli, WGM Alua Nurman, and IM Dinara Wagner qualified for the 2026 FIDE Women's Freestyle World Championship as the only three female players to finish on six points.

Final Standings (Top 10)

Round 8 Results (Top 10 Boards)

The position for the eighth round was #332.

In the regular starting position, all pawns are protected and we consider f2 and f7 weak points because only the king is protecting it. In Freestyle, you have several positions where a pawn is not protected at all, and sometimes, two. This was one of them.

If anyone would know how to handle that it's Keymer. Earlier in the tournament, Carlsen had mentioned that he often "checks what Keymer does." Higher praise is hardly possible.

And indeed, the German player played a fairly strong game against GM Alexey Sarana (even described as a "masterpiece" by GM Peter Heine Nielsen) that was sadly marred by a single mistake. Where the attack should have been finished off with a petite combinaison (given as a puzzle below), Keymer missed the idea and instead allowed his opponent to escape.

"If you look at it, you realize how easy it is," Keymer later said. "It's kind of crazy to miss. It's not a question of whether you find it or not; once you start thinking about it you find it immediately, within seconds."

Keymer-Sarana was a masterpiece by Keymer.
Spoiled in the end by allowing a draw, but a very impressive game.
Shows how deep and fascinating Freestyle chess can be when played with the classical time control.@KeymerVincent @GRENKEChess

— Peter Heine Nielsen (@PHChess) April 6, 2026

Going into the final day, GM Pranav Venkatesh was the most surprising name among the players in shared second place. The Indian GM showed more excellent chess in his morning game with Vachier-Lagrave, but in the end, the Frenchman emerged victorious to catch Keymer in first place. 

A few hours later, after his final round game, Vachier-Lagrave commented:

"I was not happy with the starting position. I think it was even worse than [the one from round nine.] I realized immediately because, you had two weaknesses, g7 and b7, and it was really difficult to not concede space or to do like I did. I saw this idea with 3...e5. Since then, I’ve looked at the computer lines and the the refutation is just insane. So I’m very happy with what I found, to somehow manage to get something. But also Pranav, he took a lot of time. 7.Bxf5 was a shock, but somehow I managed to react and to play, I think after that move, all the best moves simply."

GM Rafael Leitao has provided an analysis of the Game of the Day below:

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi should have beaten GM Leon Luke Mendonca, but an old, bad habit returned for the Russian player, who moved too fast at the moment when he spoiled the win:

Two more players remained in striking distance of Keymer and MVL: Carlsen and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Carlsen did so by beating GM Nodirbek Yakubboev with the black pieces in a game he enjoyed.

"It was a lot of fun," said Carlsen in an interview. "I think in this tournament we've had a lot of really fun starting positions, so I appreciated that. This one was just absolute mayhem from the start. I'm happy that I managed to navigate it better than he did. This game was just completely unlike anything I've played before."

This game was just completely unlike anything I've played before.
—Magnus Carlsen

Duda defeated GM Volodar Murzin convincingly. The Polish GM got an advantage out of the opening and basically never let go, despite his opponent defending ferociously.

Round 9 Results (Top 10 Boards)

The position for round nine was #261.

With only two leaders on seven points, it wasn't hard to predict the pairing for the top board. Vachier-Lagrave got to play the white pieces vs. Keymer, and he knew that a draw most likely wasn't going to be enough.

"I wanted to fight of course because I have clearly worse tiebreaks, but I didn't want to go crazy and things really went a bit crazy," he said.

I didn't want to go crazy and things really went a bit crazy.
—Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Keymer called the starting position "one of the clearly more dangerous ones for Black" but got off the hook, so to speak, when MVL didn't play the most critical setup in the opening. Already on move six there were many interesting options for Black, but after the move chosen by Keymer, Vachier-Lagrave decided to liquidate and offer a draw. "Somehow it became very anticlimactic at the end," he commented.

With another quick draw in Sarana-Duda, both players missed their chance to catch the leaders. Somewhat surprisingly, the same happened a bit later in the game Carlsen-Chopra, which ended in a move repetition on move 17.  Apparently, Carlsen felt that Black would get too much counterplay if he had played on.

Aryan Chopra holds Magnus Carlsen to a draw, and so the only two on 7.5/9 are Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vincent Keymer!https://t.co/0MMuE1AVza#GrenkeChess pic.twitter.com/4iVVjg6KfW

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 6, 2026

A board lower, poor Pranav also lost his second game of the day against Nepomniachtchi, who played powerful chess but again made a mistake that could have spoiled the win. Pranav was OK for a short while, but then erred again. Painful.

Heartbreak for Pranav, who had a brilliant run but ends with two losses on the final day!https://t.co/c6INQjVUlP#GrenkeChess pic.twitter.com/7AlY6dNm5J

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 6, 2026

As mentioned in the intro, Harika, Nurman, and Wagner were the three ladies who qualified for the upcoming Freestyle women's world championship, the first of its kind. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva had already qualified by winning the exhibition match in February in Weissenhaus vs. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, who missed another chance at Grenke where she scored 5.5 points. 

The way Harika held the draw against GM Baadur Jobava today was nice:

How to watch?

The Grenke Freestyle Chess Open was a classical tournament in the Freestyle Chess (Chess960) format that served as a qualifier for the FIDE Freestyle Women's Chess World Championship 2026 and the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027. The event took place alongside a regular classical tournament, the Grenke Chess Open. The Freestyle Chess event was 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 4: Keymer Sole Leader Going Into Final Day At Grenke
• Day 3: Keymer, Niemann Still Perfect, To Clash On Easter Morning
• Day 2: Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi, Niemann, Keymer Among 19 Players On 3/3 At Grenke
• Day 1: Carlsen On 10/10 As Grenke Chess Festival Takes Off In Karlsruhe
• Carlsen, Keymer, Abdusattorov Headline Massive Grenke Chess Field