The Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025 starts on 7 February and the first leg ends on 14 February. The tournament will have 4 more rounds that are scheduled in various cities across the globe. The final tour will end in December 2025.
Each round will have 10 players and the ones taking part in the current tour in Germany are Magnus Carlsen, D. Gukesh, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Vladimir Fedoseev and Javokhir Sindarov.
All the players have shown immaculate skills in the past but here are the top 3 players who will dominate the tour.
Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian chess player who is considered one of the best in the game. He is a five-time world champion and current World Number 1. He became one of the youngest grandmasters in the world in 2004 at the age of 13. He became the World Chess Champion for the first time in 2013 and defended the title multiple times.
He also grabbed the World Rapid Chess Championship thrice and the World Blitz Chess Championship five times. He’s praised for his natural talent for the game and his calmness under pressure. He is truly a legend in Chess history and will be one of the toughest players to beat.
Gukesh Dommaraju
Despite being the youngest to compete in the tour, he’s definitely one of the most notable players. He began playing chess at the age of 7 and was able to win the Grandmaster title at 12 making him the second youngest Grandmaster at the time. He won 5 gold medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championship and also won the under-12 title at the World Youth Championship.
He had already defeated chess legend Magnus Carlsen and surpassed Vishwanathan Anand to become the highest-ranked Indian chess player. He won the FIDE World Championship in 2024 making him the youngest chess champion in history. Carlsen also shared with the media that he is excited to play with D. Gukesh following his recent World Championship victory.
Fabiano Caruana
The American chess Grandmaster, Fabiano Caruana is popularly called a “machine” by the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. He earned his first Grandmaster title at the age of 14 and won the Italian Chess Championship 4 times. He also grabbed the Sinquefield Cup and U.S. Chess Champion thrice. He is known for his extreme preparation and calculation.
He is currently World Number 2 and also the third highest-rated player in history with a peak rating of 2844. His career best is a seven-game winning streak at the Sinquefield Cup 2014. He also won gold and bronze and the 42nd Chess Olympiad. His immaculate skills and experience make him a top contender in the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025.
