Freestyle Semifinals ready to begin in Weissenhaus

Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, and Javokhir Sindarov are through to the semifinals of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour at Weissenhaus. For the most part, the winners were in control of the second game of their quarterfinal matches, except for Sindarov, who pulled off the big upset over Hikaru Nakamura. A second draw in classical pushed them to tiebreaks, where Nakamura missed a win in the first game, and Sindarov suddenly took over to win. Nakamura also had excellent winning chances in game two but let it slip again, agreeing to a draw in a lost endgame to allow his young opponent to advance.

The semifinals will have Carlsen taking on home-country favourite Keymer, and Caruana next in line for Sindarov. Follow along live on Lichess, starting at 7:00 a.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. CET.

Photo by Stev Bonhage / Freestyle Chess