All Hackers in the Freestyle Chess Lobby

Posted on January 9, 2025 BY Rachit Wadhwa

In a nail-biting finish, Vladimir Fedoseev defeated Javokhir Sindarov to book his spot in the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour – Weissenhaus (1st Leg) – making it a stronger line-up than any other Super Tournament one could think of. The average elo of the ten participants, as of January 2025, is 2769!

Players list:

  • Magnus Carlsen (2831)
  • Fabiano Caruana (2803)
  • Hikaru Nakamura (2802)
  • Gukesh Dommaraju (2777)
  • Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2768)
  • Alireza Firouzja (2763)
  • Viswanathan Anand (2750)
  • Levon Aronian (2747)
  • Vincent Keymer (2733)
  • Vladimir Fedoseev (2717)

Fedoseev suffered his first loss of the qualifiers stage to Sindarov in their 2-game match which he was able to shrug off and strike back immediately in the next game. Sindarov failed to capitalize on his winning advantage in the first blitz game of the blitz play-off, which turned out to be an expensive slip looking at the bigger picture. After a sluggish draw, the players went into an Armageddon in which Fedoseev bid 4 minutes and 16 seconds for the black pieces against white’s 5. Fedoseev pulled a rabbit out of a hat when he beat Sindarov on time in the following Rook vs Queen endgame:

White (Sindarov) played ..68.Kf5?? in this position to concede a draw (Rc5+! forces the trade)

Since a draw meant victory for black, Sindarov had to put the game away at all costs but instead blundered and ran out of time in an attempt to do so.

Just to put things in perspective, the average elo of the participants of some of the strongest classical Invitational/Non-Swiss tournaments of 2024 were as follows: Tata Steel Masters (Wijk) – 2712, Chennai Grandmasters – 2725, FIDE Candidates – 2745, Superbet Romania Chess Classic – 2750, Sinquefield Cup – 2755. The only event that comes close and even outstrips is the 2024 Norway Chess which was a 6-player invitational tournament with an average elo of 2779.

Although Freestyle Chess aka Fischer Random Chess is different from traditional chess, participants’ ratings in the standard time control remain one of the more reliable parameters of pure chess strength, irrespective of the format. There are going to be 5 such Freestyle Chess Grand Slams taking place across 2025 in different parts of the world, filling the calendar with excitement for the players and the fans.

Picture Courtesy: Chess.com

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