After winning the first leg, Vincent Keymer went into the event as the tour leader.[1] However, in terms of classical FIDE rankings at the time of the event, he ranks last among the qualified players.
While the first leg only had 10 participants playing in the main event, the number of participants was increased to 12 for the second leg. Nevertheless, only the top eight players after the round-robin stage will qualify for the main knockout bracket, while the remaining four players will play for positions 9–12 in a separate bracket.[3]
The event began with a rapidround-robin stage, with a time control of 10 minutes with an increment of 10 seconds per move. The players who finished 1-8 in the round robin stage qualified for the classical single-elimination stage, which consisted of two game matches with a time control of 90 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds per move. In the event of a tie, the tiebreak is two 10+10 rapid games followed by two 5+2 blitz games if the tie persists, and then one armageddon game with bidding.[3]
The players finishing 1-4 chose their opponent for the quarter finals from players 5-8. The losers from the quarter-finals will determine their final rankings in fifth and seventh-place play-offs, while losers from the semi-finals meet in a third-place play-off. The players finishing 9-12 played in a separate bracket for ninth place, where the ninth placed player from the round-robin chose his opponent from players 11-12. The losers from the first round of this bracket finished in a joint eleventh place.[3]
The starting position is selected at random by the organizers, and revealed to players 10 minutes before the scheduled start time of a match (for blitz and armageddon games, this time is reduced to 5 minutes). The players are allowed to use this time to discuss and analyze the position with other players. The starting position of classical chess is excluded from the possible starting positions.[3]
All qualification matches were played online and were hosted by Chess.com.[4] All non-titled players started qualification in one of two separate open qualifier events, which were held on March 8 and March 9 respectively. 100 players participated, with the top three players from each event advancing to the Swiss stage.[4][5] 202 players participated in the Swiss stage held on March 12. It was open to all titled players. The top four players, Amin Tabatabaei, Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn, Rauf Mamedov and Pranesh M advanced to the 16-player knockout stage.[6]
Twelve players of the Freestyle Chess Players Club were invited directly to the knockout stage, held on March 13 and 14. They were sorted by their March 2025 classical FIDE rankings and seeded accordingly from 1-12. Vladimir Fedoseev, who won the play-in for the first leg of the tour, was originally one of these 12 players, but was later replaced by the next-highest ranked player. That player was Javokhir Sindarov, who finished second in the play-in for the first leg of the tour and also played in the main event.[7]
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.
Main Event
Niemann controversially withdrew from the event at the last minute.
Participants
Hans Niemann had qualified for the 2025 Grenke Chess Classic by winning the 2024 Grenke Open. However, on February 13, 2025, it was announced that a Freestyle Open would be held in place of the Classic. To compensate, Niemann received a wild card invitation to the Paris Grand Slam.[10]
On April 5 it was reported that Niemann had withdrawn from the tournament, citing personal reasons, and would be replaced by Nodirbek Abdusattorov.[11]
The sudden withdrawal at the last minute garnered controversy. Fans had been eagerly awaiting his anticipated meeting with Magnus Carlsen in the event, due to their controversial rivalry.[12][13] He had previously stated that he was "deeply grateful" for the invitation, and would bring former world champion Vladimir Kramnik with him as his second in Paris.[14][13]
It was the second withdrawal of a player in the days before the event, following Alireza Firouzja, who also cited personal reasons. Organizer Jan Henric Buettner revealed in an interview that he withdrew due to issues with the contract. He was replaced by Play-in runner-up Richárd Rapport.[9]
Keymer finished day one outside of the top 8, scoring only 2/6, half a point behind Praggnanandhaa with 2.5/6.[16] With a strong performance on day two scoring 3.5/5, he advanced with the top 8, while Praggnanandhaa was eliminated.[17] In round one, Carlsen and Vidit played a 116-move marathon. Vidit was on the defending side of a rook and knight versus rook endgame, and ultimately faltered on move 115.[18] Some have speculated that this marathon game may have negatively impacted Vidit's performance in the rest of the tournament.
Abdusattorov, who got his invitation only two days prior to the start of the event, started strong and went undefeated on day one with 5 out of 6 points.[19] However on day two, he only scored 1.5 out of 5 points, finishing 5th overall.
The players who finished 1st-4th in the rapid round robin stage picked their opponents from the players who finished 5th-8th. They also chose whether they would play as white or black in the first game.[3]
The four players who were eliminated in the round-robin stage compete in the 9th-to-11th-place bracket. The bottom two players share 11th, as they receive no tour points regardless.
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 normal time controls; adding up to 4, a win under rapid time controls; adding up to 6, a win under blitz time controls; and adding up to 7, a win in armageddon with bidding.
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Magnus Carlsen 
Hikaru Nakamura 
