Grenke Freestyle Chess Open
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| 2025 | |
 Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Chess variant (Chess960) |
| Location | Karlsruhe, Germany |
| Dates | April 17–21, 2025 |
Tournament format | 9-round Swiss-system tournament |
| Host(s) | Schachzentrum Baden-Baden Freestyle Chess Operations |
| Venue | Kongresszentrum Karlsruhe |
| Participants | 570 |
| Final positions | |
| Champion |  Magnus Carlsen |
| Runner-up |  Parham Maghsoodloo |
| 3rd place |  Frederik Svane and Andrey Esipenko |
The Grenke Freestyle Chess Open is an annual open Chess960 tournament. It is held in Karlsruhe, Germany, concurrently with the Grenke Chess Open as part of the Grenke Chess Festival, supplanting the former round-robin Grenke Chess Classic.[1][2][3]
The first edition took place from 17–21 April 2025. It was a part of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments. Magnus Carlsen won with a perfect score, winning all nine of his games.[4] Seven players tied for second place, with Parham Maghsoodloo finishing second with the best tiebreak score. The winner was set to qualify to the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess Grand Slam. Since Carlsen had already qualified from a previous event, the spot was awarded to Maghsoodloo.[5]
The second edition was held from 2–6 April; it was won by Vincent Keymer, ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on tiebreak. Keymer qualified to the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027, and the top three women, Harika Dronavalli, Alua Nurman, and Dinara Wagner qualified to the FIDE Women’s Freestyle Chess World Championship 2026.[6][7]
In 2024, the traditional Grenke Chess Festival returned after a five-year hiatus. The invitational "Classic" tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen, while the Open, which was held concurrently, was won by Hans Niemann, who thereby qualified for the 2025 Classic.[8]
On February 13, 2025, the organizers of the Festival and the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments being held throughout 2025, announced that a Chess960 open would be held in place of the Grenke Chess Classic. The new open is part of the Grand Slam Tour, with the top ten finishers scoring tour points, and the winner qualifying for the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Slam.[9][1][2]
As part of the cooperation, Niemann, who had previously qualified for the now-cancelled Classic, was given a wild card invite to the Paris Grand Slam to compensate.[10] He controversially withdrew from that tournament at the last minute without explanation, leading to doubts about his potential participation in Grenke. He ultimately did arrive to play in the Freestyle Open.[11]
Format
Qualification
As an open tournament, any interested chess player could participate. Players were distributed into three sections according to their classical FIDE Elo rating number and their German DWZ rating number.[1][12]
- Freestyle Open A: FIDE Elo or DWZ > 1950
- Freestyle Open B: FIDE Elo and DWZ < 2000
- Freestyle Open C: FIDE Elo < 1600 and DWZ < 1400
As of 10 April 2025, 466 players had registered, with 251 of them playing in the Freestyle Open A section.[13]
Tournament
In each of the three sections, a 9-round Swiss-system tournament was held. For each round, a random position from the 960 possible starting positions of Chess960, excluding the standard chess starting position, was drawn, which all the games in that round used. A position that is drawn in one round is be excluded for all subsequent rounds. All games use a time control of 90 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds per move.[12]
Before rounds 2-5, any player was able switch from the Grenke Chess Open to the Freestyle Open, with points from the former tournament carried over.[12]
Prize money and grand slam points for the Freestyle Open A section was awarded as follows:[12]
| Place | Prize money | Grand slam points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | €60,000 | 25 |
| 2nd | €40,000 | 18 |
| 3rd | €30,000 | 15 |
| 4th | €20,000 | 12 |
| 5th | €15,000 | 10 |
| 6th | €12,000 | 8 |
| 7th | €10,000 | 6 |
| 8th | €8,000 | 4 |
| 9th | €5,000 | 2 |
| 10th | €3,000 | 1 |
| 11th | €2,000 | 0 |
| 12th | €1,000 | 0 |
| 13th | €500 | 0 |
| 14th | €300 | 0 |
| 15th | €200 | 0 |
