Fourth Friday, Fourth Freestyle Victor
GM Sam Sevian won Freestyle Friday on February 14, scoring 9.5 points for an outright victory and becoming the first U.S. player to win a Freestyle Friday. There were 380 players in today's event, which began only hours after the conclusion of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Weissenhaus. GM Magnus Carlsen, who just finished third there, began playing this tournament as well but left after four rounds despite posting a perfect score up to that point, and so Freestyle Friday awaits its first multi-time winner.
Sevian also went undefeated in the tournament, only making draws in rounds four, six, and nine. The third of these was still enough to keep him in a tie for third with two rounds left. The 10th-round game between the tied players above him, between GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Christopher Yoo, went in Maghsoodloo's favor after Yoo dropped an early exchange—one he would never have lost, at least so early, in a standard chess game.
Maghsoodloo was now in the sole lead with nine points, his only missing point coming not from a loss but from joining the tournament a round late. As a result, while a draw would have secured no worse than a tie for first, his own tiebreaks would likely not have sufficed in such a situation.
Instead, his climactic match with Sevian, in a battle of 24-year-olds, lasted for more than 100 moves. Maghsoodloo made the last mistake back on move 61 and was about to be checkmated when his clock reached triple zeroes. With that, Sevian became the tournament's only player with 9.5 points, and so had won both the game and the tournament.
Maghsoodloo nearly became the first person to win both Freestyle Friday and a Titled Tuesday in the same week. He still won fourth place, but GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Denis Lazavik also pulled above him in the final round. Duda only needed 30 moves against GM Kayden Troff.
Curiously, all top four finishers in this event also had a paid finish in last week's Titled Tuesday: Lazavik fourth place in the early tournament, Duda fifth early, Maghsoodloo first late, Sevian second late.
February 14 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 2879 | 9.5 | 70.5 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2850 | 9 | 68.5 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2817 | 9 | 67 | |
| 4 | 35 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2760 | 9 | 57.5 | |
| 5 | 36 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2528 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 6 | 194 | IM | @AlmasRakhmatullaev | Almas Rakhmatullaev | 1773 | 8.5 | 66 | |
| 7 | 27 | GM | @ChessSharkz | Kayden Troff | 2593 | 8.5 | 66 | |
| 8 | 8 | GM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2786 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 9 | 267 | GM | @Jagadeesh_Siddharth | Jagadeesh Siddharth | 1623 | 8.5 | 63.5 | |
| 10 | 44 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2497 | 8.5 | 62.5 | |
| 11 | 28 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2571 | 8 | 71 | |
| 12 | 13 | GM | @NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 2712 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 13 | 73 | IM | @MatthewG-p4p | Matvey Galchenko | 2293 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 14 | 12 | GM | @LiemLe | Liem Le | 2695 | 8 | 64 | |
| 15 | 21 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 2633 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 16 | 4 | GM | @Mikhail_Bryakin | Mikhail Bryakin | 2820 | 8 | 57.5 | |
| 17 | 196 | IM | @Eagle_2019 | Mamedov Edgar | 1759 | 8 | 57.5 | |
| 18 | 64 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2331 | 8 | 57 | |
| 19 | 103 | IM | @Natalya_Buksa | Nataliya Buksa | 2062 | 8 | 51.5 | |
| 20 | 23 | GM | @LastGladiator1 | Aydin Suleymanli | 2624 | 7.5 | 66.5 |
Prizes: Sevian $400, Duda $250, Lazavik $150, Maghsoodloo $100, IM Nataliya Buksa $100 (19th 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.
