GM Sina Movahed won his fifth Freestyle Friday on January 30, holding at least a share of the lead in every round of the tournament to join GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Arjun Erigaisi, and Magnus Carlsen with five or more. Carlsen finished in third place, while GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda took second place after delivering Movahed’s only loss of the tournament in the 11th round.
Four players began 4/4: Movahed, Carlsen, Bortnyk, and GM Fabiano Caruana. Upon resumption of play following the scheduled break, Movahed beat Carlsen, and Caruana defeated Borntyk, leaving two on 5/5. Both games were entertaining: Movahed playing multiple brilliant moves early on, and Caruana checkmating Bortnyk in an endgame where both players were low on time—and where Bortnyk unsuccessfully attempted to induce a blunder from Caruana and later allowed a mate-in-one.
In the next round, Caruana and Movahed both had winning chances at various points, but played their game to a draw, ending all perfect scores. A round after that, Movahed remained tied for the lead by beating last week’s winner GM Pranav Venkatesh, but it was GM Nils Grandelius who joined him by defeating Caruana.
In the eighth round, Movahed needed just 20 moves to beat Grandelius and take the sole lead entering the second break.
Movahed could only draw three-time Freestyle Friday winner GM Pranesh M in the ninth round, but retained the sole lead in the tournament, with GM Arseniy Nesterov the only player half a point back, while Pranav, Pranesh, Duda, and GM Minh Le were now a full point behind.
In the 10th round, Movahed won another miniature, taking out Nesterov in just 18 moves. Among the other group of four, only Duda won, keeping him within a point of Movahed. That left Movahed only needing a draw in the final round to clinch the tournament outright. Instead, Duda was able to finally knock Movahed off his perch, but the tiebreak situation was not favorable enough to officially catch up.
Elsewhere in the final round, Carlsen beat Caruana to take third place.
Nesterov was able to secure fourth place, while WGM Savitha Shri B won the women’s prize.
January 30 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 4 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 2783 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2749 | 9 | 62 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 2839 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 4 | 11 | GM | @Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 2726 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2812 | 8.5 | 57.5 | |
| 6 | 17 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2681 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 7 | 8 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 2721 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 8 | 2 | GM | @aquarium76 | Nodirbek Yakubboev | 2678 | 8 | 52.5 | |
| 9 | 16 | GM | @Grandelicious | Nils Grandelius | 2691 | 7.5 | 74.5 | |
| 10 | 3 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 2789 | 7.5 | 73.5 | |
| 11 | 22 | GM | @Cayse | Martyn Kravtsiv | 2610 | 7.5 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 9 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2716 | 7.5 | 66.5 | |
| 13 | 14 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 2681 | 7.5 | 66 | |
| 14 | 7 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2729 | 7 | 71 | |
| 15 | 5 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 2730 | 7 | 70 | |
| 16 | 18 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 2649 | 7 | 70 | |
| 17 | 26 | FM | @Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 2562 | 7 | 65 | |
| 18 | 21 | GM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 2620 | 7 | 63.5 | |
| 19 | 46 | IM | @Gianmarco_es | Gianmarco Leiva | 2463 | 7 | 60.5 | |
| 20 | 41 | IM | @IM_Alex_Ivanov | Alex Ivanov | 2469 | 7 | 59.5 | |
| 29 | 65 | WGM | @savitha1030 | Savitha Shri B | 2392 | 6.5 | 54 |
Prizes: Movahed $400, Duda $250, Carlsen $150, Nesterov $100, Savitha $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.
