New Name Tops Freestyle Friday Standings

GM Pranav Venkatesh is now a Freestyle Friday victor, taking his first tournament on January 23 with a 9.5/11 score. Coming in second place was GM Martin Kravtsiv, followed by GM Nodirbek Yakkuboev in third and GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov in fourth, while WGM Phuong Hanh Luong won the women’s prize.

None of the above was the last perfect player, which instead was GM Rinat Jumabayev on 5/5, but he seemed to have problems with his connection in the sixth round, taking 50 seconds to make his last two moves before losing on time. The beneficiary, GM Sam Sevian, took further advantage by winning in the seventh round to take the sole lead in the tournament on 6.5/7, while Jumabayev was never able to work his way back into contention.

In the next round, Freestyle did what it sometimes does, lulling a grandmaster into an early blunder normally reserved for amateurs. Kravtsiv, in fact, was the victim, losing in six moves to Pranav on a pin/fork combo.

Sevian only made a draw in the round, but with a 7/8 score he still held the sole lead thanks to Kravtsiv’s loss, while Vokhidov, Pranav, Yakubboev, and GM Denis Lazavik were just behind. Coming out of the post-eighth round break, however, Pranav defeated Sevian to take over the lead. He would be joined atop the standings by Yakubboev, who toppled GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac. Both players missed a hanging knight on move 20, but Yakubboev did not miss a chance to trap Deac’s other knight a few moves later.

Sevian, Vokhidov, Kravtsiv, and Lazavik remained within striking distance, but Pranav retained his lead in the 10th round, defeating Yakubboev. Kravtsiv and Vokhidov stayed a half-point back. 

Pranav was a win away from tournament victory, and it would have to come against Vokhidov. Otherwise, Kravtsiv was still in play if he could win over Sevian. Yet Pranav took care of business with little drama, as Black, in just 27 moves.

Soon after, Kravtsiv completed his resilient performance. Despite a first-round loss and the embarrassing blunder in the eighth, Kravtsiv scored every other point available to him, including needing just 30 moves to lock in second place at the end.

Yakubboev took third place with 8.5 points—it was an unusual tournament in that first, second, and third place were all decided without tiebreaks. With Phuong winning the women’s prize outright on seven points, the only place in the standings tiebreaks were needed was to decide Vokhidov’s overall fourth place.

January 23 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)