GMs Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian will contest the title match of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals, where first place comes with $200,000. Carlsen won a close semifinal match against GM Javokhir Sindarov, who won on demand once and nearly did it again. Aronian took the match against GM Vincent Keymer in blitz tiebreaks, winning both games of the faster time control.
We will see Sindarov vs. Keymer in the match for third, GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Arjun Erigaisi in the match for fifth, and GM Hans Niemann vs. GM Parham Maghsoodloo in the match for seventh.
The event will conclude on Thursday, December 11, starting at 6 a.m. ET / 12:00 CET / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Aronian defeated Carlsen 2-0 in tiebreaks on his way to winning the $200,000 first prize in Las Vegas, at the last Freestyle Chess Grand Slam. He’ll have a chance to repeat the feat in Thursday’s Final.
Upper Bracket
Lower Bracket
Upper Bracket
Carlsen and Aronian won the two matches in the Upper Bracket, against Sindarov and Keymer.
Carlsen 2.5-1.5 Sindarov
The marquee matchup lived up to expectations, with Sindarov bouncing back from defeat once in game two and very nearly doing it again in game four. Had Sindarov won again, on demand, we would have seen a bidding armageddon game—something Carlsen narrowly avoided.
Carlsen won a convincing game one with the black pieces. After slowly outplaying his opponent, he found a nice sequence ending with 23…Qg5! to force a winning endgame. It was a fairly clean game, though for a blip Sindarov had the miraculous 28.Bd3!! possibility to fight on.
The match was far from over, though, as Sindarov was up to the task of beating the world number-one, on demand with the black pieces. In short: Sindarov won the exchange, Carlsen fought his way back, and the Uzbek again outplayed his opponent in the heavy-piece endgame when both were short on time. GM Rafael Leitao goes over the Game of the Day below.
Both 5+2 tiebreak games featured wild time scrambles. With Black, Carlsen won a pawn and converted the technical position “by hand,” so to speak, with the task of defending just on the two-second increment being too much for the 20-year-old.
The second blitz game, however, was the the decisive one. Sindarov sacrificed an exchange and rightly outplayed his opponent, but in the time scramble all results were possible, and the result we got was a draw. Carlsen explained: “It was a complete and utter meltdown by both players. I don’t know what to say, it was just sport, I suppose.”
You can see the nerve-wracking finale below:
Carlsen didn’t comment on the quality of the last two games, but gave a hint of his opinion when he said, “I guess I outlasted him more than anything else, but it feels good to be in the Final.” He and Aronian are guaranteed to win at least $120,000 as runner-up, with the chance of $80,000 more to the winner of the match.
Aronian 3-1 Keymer
It could have easily been Carlsen against Keymer in the Final, if the German number-one were to convert his winning advantages in game two. Aronian found a miraculous escape to survive that game, and then won both blitz games to take over the match.
Game one was a draw with 98 accuracy by both sides, despite the players starting with an unfamiliar position on move one. In game two, however, Keymer missed an opportunity to immediately put away the match. 14…Bxa1 was perhaps the best chance, while later on Keymer again got a winning advantage, but one that was extremely difficult to convert to a full point.
Aronian found a beautiful knight sacrifice to force a draw by threefold repetition, though he later said, “I cannot say I am too proud with my play. The second game I was just having too much fun” by going all-out for the attack.
Winning advantages came and went like fortunes at a poker table in the blitz tiebreaks. Game one of blitz was the most turbulent and could be summarized as: Aronian was winning, then Keymer won a piece, and finally Keymer blundered the piece back to end up in an endgame two pawns down. The heartbreak was written all over his face in the clip below, and this was essentially the deciding moment in the match:
Aronian won game two in 35 moves against a, by now, clearly demoralized Keymer.
We’re nearing the end of a great year for Aronian, no matter what happens in his final match against Carlsen, which he called “a great privilege.” He downplayed his last victory against the world number-one, saying, “it was just two blitz game there. This time it’s a real Final.”
He has a surprisingly relaxed attitude about the next step: “I really don’t care how I play. There is no pressure. I mean, I had such a good year. If i had a bad year, then of course I would be shaking to win some money. But now, I’m rich, so I don’t care!”
But now, I’m rich, so I don’t care!
—Levon Aronian
Lower Bracket
Caruana and Arjun won their matches in the Lower Bracket, against Maghsoodloo and Niemann.
Caruana 1.5-0.5 Maghsoodloo
It just doesn’t get any better for Maghsoodloo, who lost all nine of his games before this match. Despite the setbacks, he has participated energetically in the analysis sessions and come to each game with his signature ambition and optimism. He came to the confessional booth for the first time, during the first game, to say, “I think my first point is coming in this tournament!”
Parham Maghsoodloo makes his 1st confessional appearance: “I think my 1st point is coming in this tournament!” #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/TQhstPVUvT
— chess24 (@chess24com) December 10, 2025
Unfortunately, Caruana later won the exchange after the blunder 22…Nh7?? and won the game.
Caruana drew game two from a position of strength to take the match and advance to the match for fifth place.
Arjun 3-1 Niemann
The first two games were drawn, and Arjun took the match in blitz tiebreaks.
In a first game with 97 accuracy by both sides, Arjun sacrificed a piece in the endgame, but the players repeated moves in what was still objectively an equal position. The second ended with an equal rook endgame, and we were off to blitz tiebreaks.
Game one of blitz had the most beautiful conclusion of this match, if not the day. Given the opportunity, Arjun didn’t fail to find the rook sacrifice 33.Rxa6!! to force checkmate.
While we got to see an actual checkmate on the board in that game, the next one stopped just one move short of another:
On Thursday, we will know who will win the final event of the tour! You won’t want to miss it.
How to Rewatch
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam South Africa is the last event of the multi-million dollar Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and determines this year’s Freestyle Champion, who earns the $200,000 first prize. The event takes place at the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve from December 8 to 11. All games are played in the freestyle chess variant.
Previous Coverage:
