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![]() Levon Aronian, the winner of the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess Grand Slam | |
Tournament information | |
---|---|
Sport | Chess variant (Chess960) |
Location | Las Vegas, United States |
Dates | 16 July 2025–20 July 2025 |
Tournament format(s) | Single-elimination tournament with round-robin seeding round |
Host(s) | Freestyle Chess Operations |
Venue | Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy |
Participants | 16 |
Final positions | |
Champion | ![]() |
Runner-up | ![]() |
3rd place | ![]() |
The Las Vegas Freestyle Chess Grand Slam was a Chess960 tournament that took place in Las Vegas, United States from 16 July to 20 July 2025. It was the fourth leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments being held throughout 2025. [1]
While the second leg had 12 participants playing in the main event, the number of participants was increased to 16 for the fourth leg. However, while before only the top eight players after the round-robin stage qualified for the main knockout bracket, now all the remaining eight players will still play for positions 3-16 in a modified double-elimination style format. [2]
Another change to the format was the time control of the games. The primary games of the tournament were changed from 90 minutes+30, to being 30 minutes+30. The main goal of this was to have both games be played on the same day, so as to shorten the events' length. The Rapid Round-robin and tiebreaking games, which were already a shorter time control, were unaffected.
All qualification matches were played online and were hosted by Chess.com. All non-titled players started qualification in one of two separate open qualifier events, which were held on June 14 and June 15 respectively, with the top three players from each event advancing to the Swiss stage. [3] 146 players participated in the Swiss stage held on June 18. It was open to all titled players. The top four players, Rasmus Svane, Denis Lazavik, Pranesh M, and Martyn Kravtsiv advanced to the 16-player knockout stage. [4]
Twelve players from the Freestyle Chess Players Club were invited directly to the knockout stage, held on June 19 and June 20. Hans Niemann defeated Denis Lazavik in the final, drawing with black pieces in the armageddon game, and qualified for the Grand Slam.
Round of 16 (Jun 19) | Quarterfinals (Jun 19) | Semifinals (Jun 20) | Final (Jun 20) | ||||||||||||
![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 0 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 2½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 3 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 0 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 3 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 2½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 2½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
'![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 3 | Third Place Match (Jun 20) | |||||||||||||
![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ | ![]() | 0 | ||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||
![]() | 1½ |
The four losers from the quarterfinal round above competed in the 5th-to-8th-place bracket.
(Jun 20) | Fifth Place Match (Jun 20) | ||||||
![]() | 3 | ||||||
![]() | 2 | ||||||
![]() | 1½ | ||||||
![]() | 2½ | ||||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||
![]() | 1½ | Seventh Place Match (Jun 20) | |||||
![]() | ½ | ||||||
![]() | 1½ |
Note: The player listed first played as white in the first game of the match. Scores between two players adding up to 2 indicate a win under rapid time controls; adding up to 4, a win under blitz time controls; and adding up to 5, a win in armageddon with bidding.
Leading up to the later-to-be-called third leg of the Grand Slam Tour, the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open, the organizers of the Freestyle Tour and the Grenke Open announced to publish a world rating list for Freestyle based on the tournament results. [5]
In the newest edition of their Rules and Regulation, Freestyle Chess increased the number of players in a Grand Slam to 16 and replaced the qualification by FIDE rating with the Freestyle rating.
Qualification method | Player | Age | Classical Rating | World Ranking | Freestyle Rating [6] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
(June 2025) | |||||
The top three finishers in the previous closed Grand Slam | ![]() | 34 | 2837 | 1 | 2909 |
![]() | 37 | 2804 | 2 | 2818 | |
![]() | 32 | 2777 | 4 | 2804 | |
World Chess Champion | ![]() | 19 | 2776 | 5 | 2701 |
Winner of the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open | ![]() | 24 | 2691 | 38 | 2712 |
Winner of the Aeroflot Open 2025 | ![]() | 34 | 2757 | 10 | 2771 |
The three highest rated players in Freestyle Ranking | ![]() | 19 | 2767 | 7 | 2773 |
![]() | 20 | 2730 | 22 | 2766 | |
![]() | 22 | 2766 | 8 | 2764 | |
Wild cards | ![]() | 21 | 2782 | 3 | 2758 |
![]() | 20 | 2767 | 6 | 2702 | |
![]() | 41 | 2738 | 18 | 2749 | |
![]() | 42 | 2742 | 16 | 2737 | |
![]() | 31 | 2745 | 14 | 2737 | |
![]() | 30 | 2720 | 25 | 2713 | |
![]() | 19 | 2710 | 29 | 2702 | |
![]() | 21 | 2509 | 547 | 2506 | |
Replacements | ![]() | 30 | 2687 | 40 | 2687 |
![]() | 24 | 2683 | 43 | N/A | |
Winner of the online play-in | ![]() | 22 | 2736 | 20 | 2722 |
Sources: [8] |
The Round-robin stage was changed for the Las Vegas leg. Instead of one full Round-robin including every player, the 16 players were broken up into two groups, "White" and "Black". Each player played every other in their respective groups, and the top four from each group advanced to the winners' bracket.
# | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Points | TB |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | * | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 4½ | |
2 | ![]() | ½ | * | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4½ | |
3 | ![]() | ½ | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 4½ | |
4 | ![]() | 1 | 1 | 0 | * | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
5 | ![]() | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | * | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
6 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | * | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
7 | ![]() | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | * | 1 | 3 | |
8 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * | ½ |
Going into round 4, Magnus Carlsen was tied for first in the bracket. He then suffered two back-to-back losses against Praggnanandhaa and So, seriously endangering his chances of advancing. During the final round, he had to win his game against Assaubayeva, and hope that either Levon Aronian or Praggnanandhaa lost their final games, so that he could enter a tiebreaking match against them. Magnus defeated Assaubayeva and Aronian lost to Keymer, causing the two to enter a tiebreaker for advancement. In the end, Aronian defeated Carlsen 2-0, eliminating him from the upper bracket and guaranteeing his own placement in the quarterfinals.
Despite starting the tournament with a draw against Javokhir Sindarov, Bibisara Assaubayeva struggled to make much headway against the other competition. She ended the Round-robin with a score of 0.5/7, the lowest in either bracket.
# | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | * | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
2 | ![]() | 0 | * | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4½ |
3 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
4 | ![]() | ½ | 1 | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4 |
5 | ![]() | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 0 | 3 |
6 | ![]() | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | * | ½ | 1 | 2½ |
7 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | 1 | 2½ |
8 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | * | 1½ |
Hans Niemann held the sole lead after the fifth round, with a score of 4.5/5. His last two games, however, were against top contenders Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. He took his first defeat to Hikaru, putting Hikaru in the overall lead with 5/6. Niemann then took a second loss, this time to Caruana, leaving his score at 4.5/7, which was still enough to advance.
Hikaru had the highest score in either round-robin group with 6/7, the next highest being 4.5/7. He took two draws and was one of only three players to suffer no losses, the other two being Sindarov and Caruana. Caruana made six consecutive draws before finally taking a win in his last game, against Hans Niemann.
Vidit Gujrathi, similar to his performance in the Paris Grand Slam, struggled in the round-robin stage, ending with the second lowest score of 1.5/7.
Quarterfinals (Jul 17) | Semifinals (Jul 18) | Final (Jul 20) | ||||||||||||
W1 | ![]() | 3 | ||||||||||||
B4 | ![]() | 4 | ||||||||||||
B4 | ![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||
B2 | ![]() | 2½ | ||||||||||||
B2 | ![]() | 4 | ||||||||||||
W3 | ![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||
B2 | ![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||
W4 | ![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||
B1 | ![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||
W4 | ![]() | 2½ | ||||||||||||
W4 | ![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||
B3 | ![]() | 0 | ||||||||||||
W2 | ![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||
B3 | ![]() | 1½ |
Lower Quarterfinals (Jul 17) | Intermediate Stage 1 (Jul 18) | Intermediate Stage 2 (Jul 19) | Lower Semifinals (Jul 19) | Third Place Match (Jul 20) | ||||||||||||||||||||
B4 | ![]() | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
B1 | ![]() | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
W2 | ![]() | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
B6 | ![]() | ½ | W7 | ![]() | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||
W7 | ![]() | 1½ | W7 | ![]() | ½ | |||||||||||||||||||
B1 | ![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
B1 | ![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
B5 | ![]() | 1½ | B5 | ![]() | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
W8 | ![]() | ½ | B1 | ![]() | ½ | |||||||||||||||||||
W5 | ![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
B3 | ![]() | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
W5 | ![]() | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
W1 | ![]() | 1½ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
W6 | ![]() | 2½ | W6 | ![]() | ½ | |||||||||||||||||||
B7 | ![]() | 1½ | W1 | ![]() | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
W5 | ![]() | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
W3 | ![]() | ½ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
W5 | ![]() | 2 | W5 | ![]() | 1½ | |||||||||||||||||||
B8 | ![]() | 0 |
Fifth Place Match (Jul 20) | ||||
B4 | ![]() | 2 | ||
B3 | ![]() | 0 |
Seventh Place Match (Jul 20) | ||||
W7 | ![]() | ½ | ||
W1 | ![]() | 1½ |
Pos. | Player | Prize money | Points | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | $200,000 | 25 | ||||
2 | ![]() | $140,000 | 18 | ||||
3 | ![]() | $100,000 | 15 | ||||
4 | ![]() | $60,000 | 12 | ||||
5 | ![]() | $50,000 | 10 | ||||
6 | ![]() | $40,000 | 8 | ||||
7 | ![]() | $30,000 | 6 | ||||
8 | ![]() | $20,000 | 4 | ||||
9–12 | ![]() | $10,000 | 2 | ||||
![]() | $10,000 | ||||||
![]() | $10,000 | ||||||
![]() | $10,000 | ||||||
13–16 | ![]() | $7,500 | 0 | ||||
![]() | $7,500 | ||||||
![]() | $7,500 | ||||||
![]() | $7,500 | ||||||
Sources: [9] [2] |