GM Magnus Carlsen scored 4.5/7 to top the Group Stage of the 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship in Weissenhaus, Germany. He gets to pick his opponent in Saturday’s Semifinals from GMs Vincent Keymer, Fabiano Caruana, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who finished half a point back. GMs Hans Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi, Javokhir Sindarov, and Levon Aronian will now battle it out for the fifth through eighth spots.
Day two, featuring the Semifinals, will be on Saturday, February 14, starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 7:30 p.m. IST.
This is a flash report—come back later for the full report!Â
Going into the final round we could have got a four-way playoff for a place in the Semifinals, but in the end the two halves were neatly split—with four of the top five players on the classical live rating list qualifying.Â
Round-Robin Results
Our Game of the Day is Carlsen’s dramatic win over Caruana, which all but sealed his spot in the top four. GM Rafael Leitao will analyze it below.
How To Watch
The 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship runs February 13-15 at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort in Germany. The prize fund is $300,000, with a $100,000 first prize. The event begins with an eight-player round-robin at a 10+5 time control, with only the top-four players going on to battle for the title in a knockout, while the remaining players compete for 5th-8th place. All knockout matches are played over four 25+10 games, with a single armageddon game deciding a tie. All games are played in the freestyle chess variant.
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