GM Magnus Carlsen won the October 17 Freestyle Friday in fine fashion, scoring 10 points to clear the field by 1.5 points. It was Carlsen’s first win in the event since August 15, which was also the last time anyone scored 10 points. He hadn’t really waited that long for a tournament win, though, having also taken the October 14 Titled Tuesday.
Carlsen’s performance in the most recent tournament was made all the more impressive in a way by the fact that he lost in the very first round before ripping off 10 consecutive victories. By the end of seven rounds, he had already recovered into a share of first place, having delivered FM Artin Ashraf‘s first loss of the tournament in the seventh. It took just 20 moves before Ashraf faced the dilemma of catastrophic material loss, checkmate on h2, or resignation. He chose the last option.
Now tied for first with four other players, Carlsen took the outright lead just two rounds later, taking down co-leader GM Pranav Venkatesh in the ninth round. In a somewhat amusing final position, Carlsen had tripled isolated pawns on the d-file, but was still way ahead thanks to a passed a-pawn that was impossible to stop given the domination Carlsen’s knight and pawns enjoyed over Pranav’s bishop. (Unfortunately for Pranav, he had missed an overloading tactic earlier that would have won.)
Carlsen added another half-point to his lead after each of the 10th and 11th rounds, defeating IM Dau Khuong Duy and GM Frederik Svane respectively. Despite their losses to Carlsen, Pranav would finish in third and Svane in fourth, although Khuong just missed the money in fifth.
In second was GM Andrew Tang, who moved into a tie with Pranav in the final round by defeating GM Aman Tabatabaei while Pranav only made a draw with Khuong. Tang got into some trouble, but escaped when Tabatabaei got his own knight trapped so helplessly on h6 that Tang was able to wait four moves to take it.
After Carlsen, Tang, Pranav, and Svane in the top four places, the final prize went to IM Nataliya Buksa, who won the women’s prize in 29th place.
October 17 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 2820 | 10 | 67 | |
| 2 | 17 | GM | @penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 2661 | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 3 | 5 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2747 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | @frederiksvane | Frederik Svane | 2755 | 8 | 70 | |
| 5 | 13 | IM | @ChessFighter_2011 | Dau Khuong Duy | 2683 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 6 | 9 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2692 | 8 | 67 | |
| 7 | 10 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2696 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 8 | 12 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 2660 | 7.5 | 69.5 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | @Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 2677 | 7.5 | 65 | |
| 10 | 2 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 2772 | 7.5 | 62.5 | |
| 11 | 43 | IM | @Individoom | Bakhtiyar Askarov | 2482 | 7.5 | 51.5 | |
| 12 | 23 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 2598 | 7 | 69.5 | |
| 13 | 19 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 2635 | 7 | 69 | |
| 14 | 41 | GM | @Matibar | Mateusz Bartel | 2469 | 7 | 58 | |
| 15 | 30 | FM | @ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 2541 | 7 | 58 | |
| 16 | 2 | GM | @PeacefulWarrior888 | Arman Mikaelyan | 2666 | 7 | 57 | |
| 17 | 4 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2725 | 7 | 56.5 | |
| 18 | 28 | FM | @Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2537 | 7 | 52 | |
| 19 | 14 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2619 | 6.5 | 64.5 | |
| 20 | 39 | IM | @PyrihRoman | Roman Pyrih | 2472 | 6.5 | 63 | |
| 29 | 54 | IM | @Natalya_Buksa | Nataliya Buksa | 2317 | 6 | 48 |
Prizes: Carlsen $400, Tang $250, Pranav $150, Svane $100, Le $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.
