Freestyle Chess Final Countdown: Who Will Claim the 12th Spot in Paris?

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 began on 7 February, and the first leg ended on 14 February, where Vincent Keymer emerged victorious. The tournament will feature five legs, out of which one in Germany has already concluded last month. The next leg of the Freestyle Chess will commence on 8 April and is set to conclude on 15 April 2025 at the Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy, Bois de Vincennes in Paris.

The format will be the same, a round-robin stage followed by a knockout stage. The top eight players will advance to the knockout stage. The time control is set to 90 minutes with a 30-minute increment per move, and no draws will be available before 40 moves. The prize money for the winner will be $200,000, while the runner-up will receive $140,000. 

The tournament will feature 12 players, out of which 11 have been confirmed. These players include Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R., Alireza Firouzja, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hans Niemann, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and the winner of the first leg, Vincent Keymer.

Freestyle Chess 12th Spot: Everything You Need To Know About The Qualifiers

The Chess.com qualifier will feature multiple stages to determine the wild card that will claim the 12th spot in the next leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour 2025. The total prize pool for this tournament is $50,000. The eligibility criteria for this qualifier is that a player must have an at least 90 days old account on Chess.com with a minimum of 50 rated rapid games played. The first stage is the Open Qualifers, which took place on 8 and 9 March. Each qualifier was a nine-round Swiss format tournament with a time control of 10+2 minutes per game.

The top three players from each Open Qualifer advanced to the next stage. The top three players who qualified for the next round are, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Wei Yi, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The next round, the Swiss Stage for Titled Players, is scheduled on 12 March, which includes the titled players who were pre-qualified for this stage.  The top performers from this stage will advance to the final knockout stage that is set to take place on 13 and 14 March where the winner will secure the 12th and the final spot of the Freestyle Chess Tour. Stay tuned for more updates. 

Also Read: Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025: Schedule, Prize Money, Top Players Ft. Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh D