Vincent Keymer won the Freestyle Open A at the grenke Chess Festival and secured his spot at the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship nest year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The German grandmaster finished level on 7.5\/9 with Maxime\u00a0Vachier-Lagrave but secured first place on tiebreak. His score of six wins and three\u00a0draws, without a loss, proved sufficient. The victory brings \u20ac60,000 in prize money and qualification for the World Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women\u2019s race, Harika\u00a0Dronavalli\u00a0of India, Alua\u00a0Nurman\u00a0of Kazakhstan, and Dinara Wagner of Germany secured the three qualification spots for the 2027 championship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three finished on 6 points, ahead of a tightly packed group of eight players on 5.5. The margins remained minimal until the final round, with no player able to separate early.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former world champions Alexandra\u00a0Kosteniuk\u00a0and Mariya Muzychuk, who had led the field before the final round, fell short in the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Freestyle\u00a0events\u00a0in Karlsruhe\u00a0featured\u00a0577\u00a0players\u00a0in total,\u00a0with\u00a0310 in Open A, 203 in Open B, and 64 in Open C.\u00a0At the top of the\u00a0Freestyle Chess Open\u00a0A,\u00a0seven\u00a0players finished half a point behind\u00a0the two leaders – Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi,\u00a0Alexey Sarana, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Leon Luke Mendonca, Nodirbek Abdusattorov,\u00a0and Aryan Chopra.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keymer, who started the day as the sole leader, was caught by\u00a0Vachier-Lagrave in round 8. The German had\u00a0built a winning position against Sarana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With little time remaining, he\u00a0failed to\u00a0find a forced mate.\u00a0The game slipped into a draw.\u00a0Carlsen\u2019s\u00a0coach\u00a0Peter Heine Nielsen later described it as \u201ca masterpiece, spoiled in the end, but a very impressive game.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time,\u00a0Vachier-Lagrave won, drawing level and shifting the pressure onto Keymer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlsen stayed within reach but never dictated the tournament like he did a year ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After his demanding draw against Keymer in Round 7, he described the conditions: \u201cOne million degrees in the playing hall. I didn\u2019t feel like having enough oxygen getting to my head at all.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the lack of oxygen, Carlsen won in round 8 and remained in contention going into the final round. But in round 9, Chopra defended bravely and earned himself a draw against the Freestyle Chess World Champion. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Round 9 saw Keymer and Vachier-Lagrave meet on the top board. The game ended after nine moves. Both players understood the tiebreak implications, but Vachier-Lagrave felt the position had already fizzled out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was time to call it a day,\u201d he said. Keymer, still affected by the missed opportunity in the previous round, accepted gladly. He knew he would most likely be ahead on tiebreaks. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vincent Keymer won the Freestyle Open A at the grenke Chess Festival and secured his spot at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-11345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-chess"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t