Keymer's Freestyle Prowess Reaffirmed
GM Vincent Keymer, who made waves in February by winning the 2025 Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, added another Chess960 crown to his list on May 2, winning Freestyle Friday by a full point with a 10/11 score. GMs Pranesh M, Fabiano Caruana, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave rounded out the top four on nine points each after tiebreaks were applied, while IM Meri Arabidze won the women's prize with seven points.
Congratulations to @VincentKeymer04 for winning #FreestyleFriday this week, by a full point! pic.twitter.com/vSZFjJxFvR
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 2, 2025
It was Pranesh who delivered Keymer's only defeat of the tournament, in round six, and only because Keymer timed out in a situation where one move won, one move drew, and one move (or, as it turned out, no move at all) lost.
Unfazed, Keymer ended the tournament the same way he started it, with a five-game winning streak. This second set of games included wins over GM Hans Niemann, Caruana, and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. It was the win against Caruana, in round 10, that cleared Keymer's path—after that, he led the tournament by a full point over a mass of seven players on eight points. Both players navigated the unfamiliar starting territory well, but Caruana let the game slip away on moves 26 and 27.
Keymer only needed a draw to lock up sole first place. It's harder to force a draw in Freestyle even if Keymer had wanted to, but his opponent also needed a win just to tie for first. One false move from Nepomniachtchi, however, and it was all over after Keymer's brilliant reply.
In the same final round, Pranesh defeated early Freestyle Friday mainstay GM Sam Sevian, Caruana took out GM Minh Le, and Vachier-Lagrave won against GM Hikaru Nakamura. Pranesh took second place after Sevian faltered early, thinking he'd won a pawn tactically but missing Pranesh's strong in-between move in reply.
May 2 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 5 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 2820 | 10 | 75.5 | |
| 2 | 11 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 2691 | 9 | 75 | |
| 3 | 15 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 2665 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 4 | 9 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2722 | 9 | 72 | |
| 5 | 7 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 2774 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 6 | 63 | GM | @Kosak12 | Jakub Kosakowski | 2127 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
| 7 | 10 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 2712 | 8 | 75.5 | |
| 8 | 1 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2866 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 9 | 8 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 2729 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 10 | 35 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2331 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 11 | 14 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2614 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 3 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 2827 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 13 | 92 | FM | @ChrisTheBellRinger | Christian Gloeckler | 1963 | 8 | 63 | |
| 14 | 23 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 2485 | 8 | 62 | |
| 15 | 38 | IM | @jumpingknight20 | Ethan Vaz | 2325 | 8 | 59 | |
| 16 | 105 | GM | @Kobalia | Mikhail Kobalia | 1904 | 7.5 | 69 | |
| 17 | 21 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2481 | 7.5 | 61.5 | |
| 18 | 157 | CM | @Vaathi_Raid | Sarveshwaran V | 1742 | 7.5 | 59.5 | |
| 19 | 28 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2403 | 7.5 | 58 | |
| 20 | 39 | GM | @Gareth-Bale11 | Mamikon Gharibyan | 2273 | 7.5 | 57.5 | |
| 21 | 29 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2414 | 7.5 | 57 | |
| 22 | 4 | GM | @VojtechPlat | Vojtěch Plát | 2748 | 7.5 | 56.5 | |
| 23 | 31 | FM | @LeRoidesChampions | Akshay Borgaonkar | 2381 | 7.5 | 56 | |
| 24 | 1 | IM | @Gianmarco_es | Gianmarco Leiva | 2102 | 7.5 | 51 | |
| 25 | 54 | GM | @Jumbo | Rinat Jumabayev | 2165 | 7 | 72.5 | |
| 29 | 66 | IM | @Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 1997 | 7 | 60 |
Prizes: Keymer $400, Pranesh $250, Caruana $150, Vachier-Lagrave $100, Arabidze $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.
