Not A Movie: 8.5 Wins Freestyle Friday
To win Titled Tuesday, 3 0 Thursday, or Freestyle Friday it usually takes at least 9.5 points out of 11. Occasionally, nine points suffices. But, for Freestyle Friday on March 27, it only took an 8.5/11 score for GM Vincent Keymer to win on tiebreaks. In total, five players reached that score, but no one achieved nine points. GM Nodirbek Yakubboev may have had the best chance, but appeared to have connection issues in the final round. He still finished in second place. GM Hans Niemann took third and GM Iniyan Paneerselvam, who defeated Keymer in the final round, took fourth, while the women's prize went to IM Nataliya Buksa in 25th place.
In seventh round, with already no players on 100%, Yakubboev became the first player to take the sole tournament lead. As GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Keymer drew, Yakuobbev gained an early edge over GM Cristobal Henriquez and converted.
Yakubboev's first defense of his lead came with Black against Keymer. Surprisingly, Yakubboev missed a chance to win a piece on move 14, and soon enough it was Keymer leading the tournament.
With Keymer on 7/8 entering the break, six players had 6.5/8, including Yakubboev, Niemann, and Iniyan. GM Jose Martinez, Benjamin Bok, and Nils Grandelius did as well. Keymer faced Bok, last week's winner, and both players battled until lone kings. Yakubboev, meanwhile, recovered from the setback the round prior to win against Niemann.
No one else on 6.5 won, so once again Keymer and Yakubboev found themselves tied for first place. Nguyen, Bok, Andreikin and Duda trailed by half a point. The 10th round was Yakubboev's turn to take a shot at last week's winner, while Keymer faced Andreikin. Both leaders continued their dominance and won, leaving who would win it all an open question.
Keymer would end his tournament versus Iniyan, and Yakubboev versus IM Quoc Hy Nguyen. Niemann and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk were also in contention, playing each other.
Disastrously for Yakubboev, he lost his connection after two moves and lost on time. Keymer now only needed a draw to clinch the tournament. Over in Niemann-Bortnyk, Niemann gained an advantage that also left his opponent with under 10 seconds on his clock before 20 moves were played. Bortnyk lasted to move 42 before capitulating.
Keymer, meanwhile, missed a chance to gain a big advantage over Iniyan on move 21. Soon, it was Iniyan who had a dead-winning position. Keymer played all the way to checkmate, and once Iniyan delivered the mate, the unthinkable had happened: 8.5 points won Freestyle Friday for the first time.
Fortunately for Keymer, he was that winner, having played the strongest slate of opponents. Keymer moved into seventh in the Championship Standings which Bortnyk continues to lead, having finished no worse than ninth so far in the Freestyle Friday Championship. Buksa is now fourth in the women's standings, led by recent candidate GM Anna Muzychuk.
March 27 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 8 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 2757 | 8.5 | |
| 2 | 15 | GM | @aquarium76 | Nodirbek Yakubboev | 2697 | 8.5 | |
| 3 | 2 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 2832 | 8.5 | |
| 4 | 12 | GM | @superchess02 | Iniyan P | 2709 | 8.5 | |
| 5 | 42 | IM | @Carnivoras | Quoc Hy Nguyen | 2517 | 8.5 | |
| 6 | 21 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 2663 | 8 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 2751 | 8 | |
| 8 | 13 | IM | @ChessFighter_2011 | Dau Khuong Duy | 2673 | 8 | |
| 9 | 4 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2764 | 7.5 | |
| 10 | 1 | GM | @rednova1729 | Awonder Liang | 2810 | 7.5 | |
| 11 | 23 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2629 | 7.5 | |
| 12 | 5 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2739 | 7.5 | |
| 13 | 39 | CM | @Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 2537 | 7.5 | |
| 14 | 6 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2737 | 7 | |
| 15 | 22 | IM | @FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 2616 | 7 | |
| 16 | 33 | GM | @blitzking1729 | Srihari L R | 2520 | 7 | |
| 17 | 16 | GM | @dretch | Conrad Holt | 2638 | 7 | |
| 18 | 43 | FM | @Gangsterrito | Yurii Khodko | 2494 | 7 | |
| 19 | 38 | CM | @DenizDirikolu09 | Deniz Dirikolu | 2485 | 7 | |
| 20 | 57 | GM | @VMikhalevski | Victor Mikhalevski | 2408 | 7 | |
| 21 | 41 | IM | @Gianmarco_es | Gianmarco Leiva | 2465 | 7 | |
| 22 | 28 | GM | @HVillagra | Cristobal Henriquez | 2574 | 6.5 | |
| 23 | 24 | IM | @scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 2601 | 6.5 | |
| 24 | 50 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2445 | 6.5 | |
| 25 | 79 | IM | @Natalya_Buksa | Nataliya Buksa | 2331 | 6.5 |
Prizes: Keymer $400, Yakubboev $250, Niemann $150, Iniyan $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.
