Can Anyone Stop Carlsen From Winning The Freestyle Grand Slam Tour?

The 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will reach its conclusion in South Africa next month, and one key question is whether anyone can stop GM Magnus Carlsen from taking the title as the first-ever Freestyle Chess Champion. 

The fifth and final tournament of the tour will take place from December 8–11 at the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve near Cape Town in South Africa. Carlsen is headlining the field of the fifth Freestyle Chess event in the tour, the first on African soil, along with world number-two GM Fabiano Caruana.

The winner of the Las Vegas event, GM Levon Aronian, is also in the field, as is GM Vincent Keymer, who won this season’s first event in Germany. GM Hikaru Nakamura was originally scheduled to play, but withdrew as his wife is due to give birth to their first child in the coming weeks. Rising star GM Javokhir Sindarov replaced him.

Also competing are GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Hans Niemann, and Parham Maghsoodloo.  The full list of players competing for the final Grand Slam title in 2025:

Carlsen has unsurprisingly dominated the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam this season. The Norwegian world number-one won two events—Paris and Karlsruhe—while finishing third in Weissenhaus and Las Vegas, giving him a clear lead on 80 tour points, 31 points ahead of Caruana. Keymer is also within striking distance on 24 points.

It’s hard to imagine anyone stopping Carlsen from becoming the Freestyle Chess champion, but there is a chance as tour points are doubled in the final event. The tournament winner gets 50 points, second place 38, and third 30. In addition, there are also points awarded from the round-robin phase with eight points to the winner and one point to the player finishing on eighth.

“With tour points doubled, nothing is settled. It’s the race among the best of the best; and in Freestyle Chess, every new position can turn the standings upside down,” Sebastian Siebrecht, Tournament Director of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals, said.

The tournament winner in South Africa cashes in $200,000, but there is also the $100,000 prize to the winner of the overall tour, with $50,000 for second place and $25,000 for third place.

As usual, the event will begin with a round-robin stage (10+5 time control), followed by three days of knockout matches (30+15) to determine the winner. The organizers also announced several side events, including an Underwater Chess exhibition, featuring Michal Mazurkiewicz, the reigning World Diving Chess Champion, who was interviewed for a story on Chess.com this year.

The event will take place at the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve near Cape Town, a venue that excites Carlsen, who called it “a perfect ending to an incredible season.” He added that Freestyle Chess “has brought back the feeling of pure discovery—you never know the position, you have to think and create. To finish the tour in such a spectacular setting feels right.”

Freestyle Chess is the chess variant, also known as Chess960 or Fischer Random. Pieces start in a semi-random position on the first and last ranks, making opening preparation obsolete. The 2025 season marked the launch of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, organized by Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, featuring events in Germany, Paris, Karlsruhe, and Las Vegas. A planned event in New Delhi, India, was cancelled earlier this year due to a lack of sponsors.

Now all eyes will be on the final event in South Africa, and entertainment is guaranteed with two separate broadcasts, featuring GMs Peter Leko, Judit Polgar, and Niclas Huschenbeth on the Pro Stream and Tania Sachdev, David Howell, and James “Dash” Patterson on the Community Stream. Games begin at 1 PM local time, 6 AM EST / 12 PM CET.