Carlsen defeats Nakamura in the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025: GM Magnus Carlsen has won the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam after securing a draw and a 1.5-0.5 match victory over GM Hikaru Nakamura. The world number-one takes the $200,000 top prize, Nakamura gets $140,000, and GM Fabiano Caruana takes $100,000 and a spot in the Las Vegas Grand Slam after crushing GM Vincent Keymer in the battle for third place.
Magnus came into the final game after defeating Nakamura in the first game where he sacrificed a pawn on move four and went on to defeat GM Hikaru Nakamura in the first game of the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Final. It was a brilliant win that put Carlsen on the driving seat, but Nakamura came agonizingly close to escaping before blundering just when salvation was in sight.
Carlsen came into the final game only needing a draw and never gave Nakamura a real chance before a draw was agreed on move 41. World no. 1 MagnusCarlsen dominated the Paris FreestyleChess Grand Slam, tying for 1st in the Round Robin before beating Abdusattorov, Caruana & now Nakamura 1.5-0.5.
World no. 1 @MagnusCarlsen dominated the Paris #FreestyleChess Grand Slam, tying for 1st in the Round Robin before beating Abdusattorov, Caruana & now Nakamura 1.5-0.5! pic.twitter.com/FHyBkCgfR6
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 14, 2025
The battle for third place saw Caruana take revenge for losing the final in Weissenhaus to Keymer. The U.S. star, who only needed a draw, got an absolutely crushing position out of the opening and was on course to win before he decided to take the draw and wrap up the match.
Even seventh place is worth $30,000, but it felt like this was a game between two players who took their frustration at earlier setbacks out on each other in a wild clash. The complications were almost unfathomable, but in summary, Nepomniachtchi’s all-or-nothing attack ultimately paid off, although White was at times completely winning.
How Indian chess players fared in Paris Grand Slam 2025?
The smoothest win of the day was for Arjun, who continued his brilliant form from the day before. He seized the initiative early on against Vachier-Lagrave when he got to push his d-pawn, and then only grew the advantage, with a later exchange sacrifice not helping the Frenchman’s cause. Arjun defeat Vachier-Lagrave and finished fifth, he will take home $50,000 (approximately Rs 43 lakh). Praggnanandhaa defeated Richard Rapport to end in 9th place at the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour, thus taking home $15,000 (approximately Rs 13 lakhs). The other two Indians, world champion Gukesh and newly-wed Vidit Gujrathi were eliminated pretty early from the event, sharing the 11th spot in the standings.
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