Vachier-Lagrave, Carlsen Fight Freestyle Friday Down To The Wire
While several players were battling it out in a qualifier for the rights to play in Vegas at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas, Freestyle Friday continued on with 229 participants. In what turned out to be an intense fight, two players scored 10 points out of a possible 11: GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Magnus Carlsen. Ultimately, tiebreaks slightly favored the Frenchman, giving Vachier-Lagrave his first Freestyle Friday win. Carlsen continues to await his second after having won the very first event back in January.
Congratulations to @Vachier_Lagrave for winning #FreestyleFriday ahead of Magnus Carlsen by tiebreaks! pic.twitter.com/KllfkWBRyu
— chess24 (@chess24com) June 20, 2025
Both made early draws, Vachier-Lagrave in round three and Carlsen in round four, and they also drew each other in round eight. Otherwise, both players scored every possible point. GM Parham Maghsoodloo started on 6/6 before Vachier-Lagrave ended that streak in 24 moves.
The draw that followed between Vachier-Lagrave and Carlsen created a five-way tie in first place on 7/8 scores, but each won in the ninth round to reestablish themselves as the only two leaders. Half a point behind them, with two rounds left, were Maghsoodloo and GM Andrew Tang. Carlsen would beat Maghsoodloo and Vachier-Lagrave would beat Tang, leaving the two as overwhelming favorites to win.
The final matches came down to Vachier-Lagrave against April 18 winner IM Renato Terry and Carlsen against June 6 winner GM Jeffery Xiong (who scored 11 points that week). Despite a starting position that featured each side's bishops pointed directly at the opposing king, both games reached an ending. Both games also ended at just about the same time. Playing White, Carlsen simultaneously promoted and checkmated Xiong on move 60 with a combined 13.5 seconds on their clocks, while Vachier-Lagrave coaxed a resignation from Terry after Black's 62nd move with 14.2 combined seconds left. Based on those figures, Carlsen got to enjoy the tournament lead for approximately 2.3 seconds before Vachier-Lagrave tied it back up.
Here is Carlsen's win over Xiong that fleetingly earned first place:
And here is Vachier-Lagrave's tournament-clinching win over Terry:
Ultimately, no one would finish within 1.5 points of the top two finishers, with GMs Tuan Minh Le and Mitrabha Guha rounding out the top four on 8.5 points. IM Meri Arabidze finished 24th to claim the women's prize.
Between all of the drama in the Vegas Grand Slam qualifier and in Freestyle Friday, it was quite the day for Chess960 as a variant. Freestyle is here to stay.
June 20 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 3 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2833 | 10 | 77.5 | |
| 2 | 4 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 2811 | 10 | 73.5 | |
| 3 | 17 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2680 | 8.5 | 63.5 | |
| 4 | 19 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 2679 | 8.5 | 58.5 | |
| 5 | 12 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2721 | 8 | 78 | |
| 6 | 6 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2759 | 8 | 74 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2761 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 8 | 30 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2616 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 9 | 20 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2680 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 10 | 26 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 2631 | 8 | 66 | |
| 11 | 27 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2606 | 8 | 65 | |
| 12 | 16 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 2693 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 13 | 29 | GM | @dalmatinac101 | Ivan Saric | 2592 | 8 | 59.5 | |
| 14 | 37 | GM | @moro182 | Luca Moroni Jr | 2520 | 8 | 56 | |
| 15 | 71 | FM | @ChessMaster2011_1 | Jake Shanty | 2436 | 7.5 | 67 | |
| 16 | 35 | GM | @FormerProdigy | David Navara | 2576 | 7.5 | 65 | |
| 17 | 25 | GM | @penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 2626 | 7.5 | 65 | |
| 18 | 18 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2660 | 7.5 | 59 | |
| 19 | 54 | IM | @IMchanged | Felix Ilinca | 2479 | 7 | 68.5 | |
| 20 | 64 | GM | @bocah_sakit | Novendra Priasmoro | 2452 | 7 | 68 | |
| 21 | 58 | GM | @WoodlandMagic | Gleb Dudin | 2472 | 7 | 63 | |
| 22 | 21 | IM | @Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 2645 | 7 | 61 | |
| 23 | 38 | FM | @FandiMazen | Mazen Fandi | 2494 | 7 | 59.5 | |
| 24 | 97 | IM | @Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2341 | 7 | 59.5 | |
| 25 | 74 | IM | @GelmanAlexander | Alexander Gelman | 2393 | 7 | 55.5 |
Prizes: Vachier-Lagrave $400, Carlsen $250, Le $150, Guha $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.
