Nepomniachtchi tops Carlsen in Paris tie
Ian Nepomniachtchi has tied world number one Magnus Carlsen for the top spot after the round-robin stage at the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Paris.
After both players finished on 8.5 points with seven wins, three draws and a loss, the Russian Grand Master edged out Norway's Carlsen on tiebreaks to finish first.
This allowed Nepomniachtchi to pick his quarterfinal opponent first with the 34-year-old opting to take on German GM Vincent Keymer who came seventh.
Carlsen then selected fifth place Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan to face next.
After a tough opening day, Indian World Champion D Gukesh came back strong on day two but could only manage 3.5 points across the 11 rounds leaving him second from bottom in the 12-player standings with only the top eight advancing.
Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi joined their Indian compatriots in failing to qualify along with Hungary's Richard Rapport.
French Grand Master Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, meanwhile, came third on seven points with four wins, six drawers and one loss ahead of India’s Arjun Erigasi who finished tied with Abdusattorov on 6.5 points.
American GM Hikaru Nakamura also advanced with six points together with Italian-American GM Fabiano Caruana who took the last spot in the top eight with 4.5 points.
The format organisers hope will 'redefine' elite chess tournaments begins with a rapid round-robin stage which sees each grandmaster play each other once in games with a time control of 10 minutes and an increment of 10 seconds per move.
The top eight players then advance with the first, second and third ranked players choosing their quarterfinal opponent in that order from players seeded fifth to eighth.
From the quarterfinals onwards, the time control for games is 90 minutes with 30 seconds added per move.
The Paris tournament is the second stop-off on the multi-million dollar Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, offering $750,000 in the total prize money with $200,000 to be awarded to the eventual champion on April 14.
