Event: 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Weissenhaus
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WEISSENHAUS - The World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju will take part in the opening tournament of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 in Germany. From February 7 to 14 at the WEISSENHAUS Private Nature Luxury Resort, Gukesh will face two former world champions: Magnus Carlsen, who has been leading the world rankings for more than 13 years and is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all times, and his idol, Viswanathan Anand, the father of the Indian chess boom. "It was always clear to us that we wanted the reigning world champion in the field at the start of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in WEISSENHAUS," says Freestyle co-founder Jan Henric Buettner. 'Now we are glad that it worked out so quickly.' "I'm looking forward to the challenge," says Gukesh, who was already part of the Freestyle premiere in February 2024 in WEISSENHAUS.
Participants
| # | Title | Name | FED | Elo1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen | 🇳🇴 NOR | 2849 |
| 2 | GM | Fabiano Caruana | 🇺🇸 USA | 2791 |
| 3 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | 🇫🇷 FRA | 2780 |
| 4 | GM | Levon Aronian | 🇺🇸 USA | 2750 |
| 5 | GM | Vincent Keymer | 🇩🇪 GER | 2747 |
| 6 | GM | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 🇺🇿 UZB | 2738 |
| 7 | GM | Dommaraju Gukesh | 🇮🇳 IND | 2729 |
| 8 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | 🇺🇸 USA | -- |
| 9 | GM | Javokhir Sindarov | 🇺🇿 UZB | -- |
| 10 | GM | Vladimir Fedoseev | 🇸🇮 SLO | -- |
1 Freestyle Elo rating
Format/Time Controls
The event features a rapid round-robin and a classical knockout stage. All matches are played under Fischer-Random (Chess960) rules, ensuring no two games start alike.
Round-robin: The eight top players move on to the knockout stage. The time control is 10+10, and draw offers are not allowed until after Black's 40th move.
Knockout: Each match consists of two classical games. The time control is 90+30, and draw offers are not allowed until after Black's 40th move.
Schedule
All times are in local time (UTC+1)
| Date | Time | Round |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Feb | 13:00 | Rounds 1-5 |
| 8 Feb | 13:00 | Rounds 6-9 |
| 9 Feb | 13:00 | Quarterfinals, day 1 |
| 10 Feb | 13:00 | Quarterfinals, day 2 |
| 11 Feb | Semifinals, day 1 | |
| 12 Feb | Semifinals, day 2 | |
| 13 Feb | Finals, day 1 | |
| 14 Feb | Finals, day 2 |
Live Coverage
- The official live broadcast is available on the Freestyle Chess YouTube channel. Commentary and analysis is provided by GM Peter Leko and IM Tania Sachdev.