New Face Cruises To Freestyle Friday Victory

GM Pranesh M won Freestyle Friday (his first) with a round to spare on October 3, gliding to a 9.5/10 start in the field of 116 players. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk finished in second place with nine points after becoming the first player to finally beat Pranesh in the last round, while GM Hans Niemann and IM Rohith Krishna rounded out the top four on 8.5 points each. IM Karina Ambartsumova won the women’s prize in 24th place.

The win made Pranesh the 21st different player to win a Freestyle Friday, and he hardly broke a sweat. His 5/5 start was already enough to take the sole tournament lead, which he never relinquished.

That fifth-round win came against Niemann, which would become important later. Niemann had multiple chances to win while Pranesh only really had one, but that one came last as Pranesh took advantage when Niemann blundered into a fork. (Happens to everyone!)

Only a draw with GM S.L. Narayanan in the seventh round interrupted Pranesh’s run to clinching the tournament. After that draw, he picked up right where he left off with three more wins, starting with a win with Black against one of Freestyle Friday’s top players of late, GM Sina Movahed. Pranesh won on time, and the game was far from over just by the position, but he did have an extra bishop in the end, growing his tournament lead into a full point.

Meanwhile, Bortnyk was making a comeback from having lost in both rounds four and five, scoring every possible point thereafter, and the storylines converged in the 10th round. Pranesh entered with 8.5/9, a full point ahead of Niemann and 1.5 points or more ahead of everyone else in the field. Having already played Niemann, Pranesh took on GM Haowen Xue instead, while Niemann faced Bortnyk. Pranesh never took over the position on the board, but won on time after putting Xue under time pressure with almost a minute left himself when the game ended. At the same time, Bortnyk was able to win material after 23 moves, and held on to win.

First place was decided, but second place, not so much. Bortnyk and Movahed were tied, but Pranesh would face Bortnyk, having already played Movahed, while Movahed faced Rohith. Time was again a factor in Movahed-Rohith, and the latter won on the clock. In the other game, Bortnyk’s 9…Nd4 threatened two different forks on b3 and e2 and Pranesh could not stop both. Bortnyk let Pranesh somewhat back into the game, but the second half of the 48-move game was ultimately noncompetitive.

With Movahed losing, Niemann took third place after recovering from his 10th-round setback with a crushing final-round win over GM Arman Mikaelyan which was over by move 11 after Niemann trapped Mikaelyan’s queen in a pattern that would pretty much only arise in Chess960—a staring contest, inescapable from its a8-corner, with a defended bishop.

October 3 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)