Young Players Keep Crushing Freestyle Friday

Freestyle Friday of late has often been dominated by two young players, 19-year-old Indian GM Pranesh M and 15-year-old Iranian GM Sina Movahed, and December 12 was no different. Pranesh won this week’s tournament on 9.5/11, defeating Movahed in a key ninth-round game, and the two of them have now combined for three of the last four Freestyle Friday titles (two for Pranesh) and seven in total (four for Movahed). Movahed earned fourth place, behind GMs Jeffery Xiong and Oleksandr Bortnyk in second and third, respectively, while IM Karina Ambartsumova took the women’s prize in 24th place.

Pranesh’s only loss of the tournament came in round five against GM Luca Moroni Jr., who moved to 5/5 but would lose in the next round to GM Grigoriy Oparin, who became the last perfect player in the field.

But Oparin went on to lose to Pranesh in the seventh round, while Moroni rejoined the leaders. Xiong joined the top of the standings as well after taking a 2-0 lead in queens in his game against GM Alexey Sarana.

Pranesh would take the sole lead after round eight, defeating Xiong himself to create the distance. Meanwhile, Moroni fell to Movahed and Oparin to Bortnyk. Black won all three of the games, a curiosity given White won on the next six boards down, so it didn’t have much to do with the starting position. Fireworks nonetheless began early between Pranesh and Xiong, and it was Xiong who lost his way.

Pranesh’s half-point lead over Bortnyk, Movahed, and GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son was still precarious, but he never it go. In the ensuing round, he took on Movahed and won. Movahed held the positional sway for most of the game, but Pranesh turned the tide before sneaking behind White’s defenses with his queen and delivering a pretty checkmate with essentially his last two pieces—that dark-squared bishop doesn’t count.

Bortnyk stayed a half-point behind by defeating Nguyen in the ninth round, but Pranesh’s lead grew to a full point in the 10th round. He gained a big advantage almost immediately against this week’s Titled Tuesday victor, GM Sam Sevian, and converted without issue. 

Only Xiong, after winning against Bortnyk, could now catch Pranesh. Unfortunately for Xiong, his eighth-round result with Pranesh complicated matters, as he would need two results to go fully his way in the last round. He got neither of them.

The final round matchups pitted Pranesh against GM Pranav Venkatesh and Xiong against Movahed. Xiong won a pawn from Movahed with a nice tactic, but it was a doubled pawn, and therefore far from decisive.

While Xiong was still trying to convert, Pranesh built a huge clock advantage over Pranav, albeit not a dominating position. But with Pranav down to mere seconds, while a draw locked up outright victory for Pranesh (who still had almost two minutes), both players were more than happy to repeat the position.

Bortnyk then clinched a win over Sarana, meaning Xiong needed a draw for a share of second and a win for outright second. 

Xiong would soon concede the draw, but the tiebreaks went his way despite Bortnyk catching up in the standings. Between GM Denis Lazavik, Movahed, Sarana, and Pranav on 8/11, fourth place went to Movahed.

December 12 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)