Media365
World No. 1 and five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen has clinched the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour championship by advancing to the semifinals at Grootbos in Cape Town. The early victory secured him the USD 100,000 bonus prize, while the South Africa Finals, with its USD 200,000 winner’s purse, remains to be contested.
Carlsen’s journey to the semifinals was challenging. He suffered an initial loss against Fabiano Caruana due to a significant error. However, he managed to force tiebreaks with Black, won the first blitz game, and secured the match with a second victory.Javokhir Sindarov maintained his strong performance from the round-robin phase. Despite Parham Maghsoodloo’s poor showing of 0/7 in preliminaries, the Iranian player created a winning position in the first game but failed to capitalise. Sindarov survived, turned the game in his favour, and won the second game for a 2-0 match victory. Vincent Keymer progressed to the semifinals despite drawing his first game against Arjun Erigaisi. He took control in the second game and secured a calm victory.Levon Aronian completed the semifinal lineup by defeating Hans Niemann. Although Niemann escaped a difficult position in their first game, Aronian secured victory in the tiebreaks.The Wednesday semifinals will feature Magnus Carlsen against Javokhir Sindarov, while Vincent Keymer will face Levon Aronian.
