GM Haik Martirosyan scored 10.5 points in Freestyle Friday on February 13, the most of anyone since last July. In the process, Martirosyan won the tournament—his first win ever in this event—by two whole points. IM Reza Mahdavi, GM Alexey Sarana, and GM Jeffery Xiong scored 8.5 points each and finished second through fourth on tiebreaks.
Martirosyan and Xiong both made it to 5/5 scores to start, but only Martirosyan reached 6/6 after their ensuing matchup.
Martirosyan then improved to 7/7 with a win over GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, which gave him a full-point advantage over Xiong and Mahdavi. He would then continue his perfect run with a win over Mahdavi, and now only Xiong remained a point back entering the final break in play. Xiong stayed in range defeating Nepomniachtchi (below) while only one other player, Sarana, was even 1.5 points back of Martirosyan’s lead.
Martirosyan’s run was finally stopped in the ninth round after a draw with Sarana. Xiong was able to apply some standings pressure with another win, this time against GM Dmitry Andreikin (the last player to score at least 10.5 points, when he was perfect on July 18, 2025), to move back within a half-point of the leader.
But Martirosyan and Xiong saw their ninth-round results inverted in the 10th. This despite the fact that, for much of the round, it appeared GM Oleksandr Bortnyk would become the first person to deliver a real blow to Martirosyan. Suddenly, however, the 25-year-old Armenian turned the tables and won.
Meanwhile, Xiong was held to a draw by Sarana, bringing Martirosyan’s lead back to a full point. He now only needed a draw in the 11th round to win outright. As he developed a big evaluation lead over GM Martyn Kravtsiv, Xiong was struggling against Movahed. Martirosyan converted easily to clinch his dominant performance.
Movahed had a more difficult time converting, but wound up defeating Xiong to help produce Martirosyan’s whopping final margin. Movahed could only play spoiler, however, with his score remaining behind Xiong’s, while Mahdavi and Sarana jumped into second and third place with wins over GMs Minh Le and Mikhail Kobalia, respectively.
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk finished 16th in the field of 126 to win the women’s prize.
February 13 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 13 | GM | @Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 2715 | 10.5 | 71 | |
| 2 | 28 | IM | @rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 2592 | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 3 | 11 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 2694 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2764 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 2780 | 8 | 74 | |
| 6 | 17 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2647 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 7 | 16 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2661 | 8 | 72 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2718 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 9 | 24 | GM | @Jumbo | Rinat Jumabayev | 2609 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 10 | 21 | GM | @Cayse | Martyn Kravtsiv | 2621 | 7.5 | 70.5 | |
| 11 | 29 | GM | @Kobalia | Mikhail Kobalia | 2521 | 7.5 | 51.5 | |
| 12 | 3 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2743 | 7 | 69.5 | |
| 13 | 23 | FM | @Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2578 | 7 | 65.5 | |
| 14 | 8 | GM | @Grandelicious | Nils Grandelius | 2668 | 7 | 65 | |
| 15 | 15 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 2631 | 7 | 65 | |
| 16 | 51 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2456 | 7 | 62.5 | |
| 17 | 9 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2651 | 7 | 56.5 | |
| 18 | 8 | FM | @temus_galaktionov | Artem Galaktionov | 2521 | 7 | 55 | |
| 19 | 55 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2402 | 7 | 53 | |
| 20 | 32 | GM | @MadeInLeningrad | Pavel Anisimov | 2505 | 7 | 50.5 | |
| 21 | 73 | FM | @Silent-Killer100 | Jaiveer Mahendru | 2361 | 7 | 50 | |
| 22 | 5 | GM | @obliviate12 | Vaibhav Suri | 2696 | 6.5 | 61.5 | |
| 23 | 40 | IM | @Gianmarco_es | Gianmarco Leiva | 2487 | 6.5 | 61 | |
| 24 | 30 | GM | @Kosak12 | Jakub Kosakowski | 2522 | 6.5 | 54 | |
| 25 | 59 | IM | @Flawless_Fighter | Polina Shuvalova | 2455 | 6.5 | 54 |
Prizes: Martirosyan $400, Mahdavi $250, Sarana $150, Xiong $100, Kosteniuk $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.
