On his 20th birthday, GM Javokhir Sindarov finished at the top of the Group Stage with 5.5/7 in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa. In round one, he won the Game of the Day against GM Magnus Carlsen. In second and third were GMs Levon Aronian, the only other player to go undefeated, and Arjun Erigaisi.
Day two, featuring the Quarterfinals, will be on Tuesday, December 9, starting at 6 a.m. ET / 12:00 CET / 4:30 p.m. IST.
The top three finishers of the Group Stage get to choose their opponents in the Quarterfinals, with Sindarov having the first pick.
Round-Robin Results
All eight players advance to the Knockout. The pairings, after the top three made their choices, are:
• Javokhir Sindarov vs. Parham Maghsoodloo
• Levon Aronian vs. Hans Niemann
• Arjun Erigaisi vs. Vincent Keymer
• Magnus Carlsen vs. Fabiano Caruana
Eight of the world’s best players have arrived at the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve in South Africa to decide, once and for all, who will be the 2025 Freestyle Chess Champion. It is the fifth event in the yearlong tour, which had previous legs in Germany, France, and the U.S.
It should come as no surprise that Carlsen leads the tour standings, and he only needs to finish fourth in the Finals to be guaranteed victory in the entire tour. That comes with a $100,000 bonus prize.
GM Hikaru Nakamura, third on the tour standings, sat out the event as he expects the delivery of his first child. He was replaced by Sindarov, who’s 11th on the list with 14 tour points. Nakamura is still making recaps, though, and you can watch his video below.
In addition to the $175,000 offered for points acquired throughout the tour, there is a $575,000 prize fund for this event alone. The winner will earn a hefty $200,000 prize.
The players, who landed in South Africa on Thursday, participated in a number of side events before getting down to business. We already covered GM Hans Niemann‘s victory in diving chess last week, but the fun didn’t stop there. Over the weekend, the grandmasters participated in fatbike riding, horseback riding, and baking cookies.
Meanwhile we had the next lineup of (Grand)Masterchefs showing off their skills in baking cookies 😂 pic.twitter.com/Bhgvm60C52
— Freestyle Chess (@chess_freestyle) December 7, 2025
Games were 10+5 time control in the first stage, though the longer time control of 30+15 will be implemented starting on day two. Players started from a new position in all seven games, so we saw a total of seven starting positions in the first stage.
Sindarov started his day with a win against world number-one Carlsen in round one. It’s not the first time the Uzbek GM defeated Carlsen in Freestyle Chess, as he scored an early win against Carlsen in the 2025 Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam.
One mistake, 10…Nge7?, was all it took for the world number-one to find his king trapped in the center. And, in an attempt to evacuate his king, Carlsen had to give up his queen. GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes the Game of the Day below.
What a start to the day it was for the birthday boy, who had just won the 2025 FIDE World Cup at the end of November.
Celebrating my 20th Birthday with @chess_freestyle in 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/q19MFAu4zj
— Javokhir Sindarov (@GMJSindarov) December 8, 2025
From there, Sindarov made draws with GMs Vincent Keymer and Arjun (both crazy games ending in perpetual checks), before scoring a hat trick.
He defeated GMs Maghsoodloo, Fabiano Caruana, and Hans Niemann, in that order. The win against Caruana was perhaps the nicest, and it was an opening disaster for the American. The combination of 2.g4?! and 8.0-0? did not work out, and by the time Black played 11…d5, Leko said, “White is borderline lost,” even if the computer didn’t think it was so bad just yet.
Caruana said, “I can’t say that I ever had found my footing today at all. A lot of games were truly quite atrocious… I mean, I haven’t sat down at the board for over a month… maybe I’m still a bit rusty.”
Sindarov finished the day with a draw against Aronian, who finished in second. The Armenian-American made four draws and scored all three of his wins in a row—against Arjun, Maghsoodloo, and Caruana.
He won a nice endgame in round two against Arjun, exploiting a single mistake that left his opponent’s knight sidelined. The game ended with a liquidation into a pawn endgame with equal pawns, but one that was winning for White.
Aronian was happy with the result but added that only day two would have real consequences. The first day only decided the pairings for the next. As he said: “I think this day doesn’t decide much. That’s why I was relaxed. And tomorrow is where the hard work starts, so I can only judge about my form starting from tomorrow.”
I think this day doesn’t decide much. That’s why I was relaxed.
—Levon Aronian
Asked what would make this a successful tournament, he responded, “It’s already a successful tournament. I’m here, I got here!” Even eighth place receives a $15,000 prize.
Besides the loss against Aronian, his only one, Arjun finished in third. He was the only other player to beat Carlsen, and he did that in round five. In an uncomfortable position, Carlsen played the mistake 21…c5? and lost in a shockingly one-sided manner. Arjun made it look easy.
Carlsen, who still finished in fourth, felt sick the day before and wasn’t happy with his play: “I am quite aware that I’m just not able to think anything close to as clearly as I need on a day like this… I’m glad to be done with the day and then try and recover as well as possible for the next few days.”
Though he started with a round-one loss, he recovered with a hat trick against Caruana, Keymer, and finally Niemann in round four. Carlsen ultimately won that game by trapping a bishop on his side of the board.
Caruana and Niemann finished on three points, while Keymer ended on 2.5. He said the result was “kind of expected” as he was feeling sick the previous day. “I did feel a little better today, but still I could clearly tell that I blundered way too many things,” with the worst example being against Carlsen in round three.
The game was essentially over after 4.Ne3?? blundered a pawn. Keymer said he didn’t see 4…Qxf4 was even a possibility.
Maghsoodloo finished last, but each player is still in full contention to win the prize. The Quarterfinals begin on Tuesday, and the stakes only get higher from here on out.
How to Rewatch
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam South Africa is the last event of the multi-million dollar Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and determines this year’s Freestyle Champion, who earns the $200,000 first prize. The event takes place at the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve from December 8 to 11. All games are played in the freestyle chess variant.
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