The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 will stop in Paris from April 7 to 14, featuring twelve top grandmasters, including Magnus Carlsen and Gukesh Dommaraju. Following Vincent Keymer’s win in Weissenhaus, players will vie for a $750,000 prize pool, with $200,000 for the winner. The tournament will be held at the Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy, starting with a round-robin phase and advancing to knockout matches. The competition also includes a qualification event to fill the final player spot. Following Paris, the grenke Freestyle Chess Open in Karlsruhe is set to continue the excitement, redefining classical chess with innovative formats.
Press release from Freestyle Chess
Paris, March 2025 – The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 is heading to Paris! From April 7 to 14, twelve of the world’s leading chess grandmasters will vie for the year’s second Grand Slam title, following a spectacular opening in Weissenhaus, where Germany’s Vincent Keymer triumphed on his home turf. With a substantial prize pool of $750,000, including $200,000 earmarked for the winner, tension and fierce competition are guaranteed.
A prestigious venue with a groundbreaking format
The tournament will be hosted at the Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy in Paris, located within the historic Bois de Vincennes. This will be the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam featuring 12 participants. The event will kick off with a two-day round-robin phase, with eight players advancing to the knockout rounds. The subsequent six days will feature matches under classical time controls, raising the stakes further.
Exciting player roster
With 11 out of 12 players confirmed, the tournament will showcase some of chess’s heavyweights, including world number one Magnus Carlsen and reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Other prominent participants include Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R., Hans Niemann, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Who will take the 12th Spot?
This tournament marks the Freestyle Chess debut for five players. French stars Firouzja and Vachier-Lagrave will have strong local support, similar to what Keymer enjoyed in Weissenhaus. The final player will be determined through an open online qualification event—one of the most lucrative online chess tournaments, boasting a record $50,000 prize pool.
- March 8-9: Open rounds on Chess.com
- March 12: Swiss-system tournament for all titled players
- Knockout Stage: Top four from Swiss stage to compete for the final Paris seat alongside 12 invited members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club.
What’s next after Paris: The excitement continues
Just after the Paris event, the grenke Freestyle Chess Open will be held in Karlsruhe, Germany (April 17 to 21), expected to set new participation records. Several contenders from Paris, including Carlsen and Keymer, will compete for a $225,000 prize pool. The winner will earn a spot in the next Grand Slam in the United States (July 17-24), heightening the anticipation even more.
Freestyle’s Chief Chess Officer, Sebastian Siebrecht:
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Amateur and elite chess players unite at the grenke Freestyle Chess Open! I’m excited that a majority of players from the Freestyle Chess Players Club have accepted our invitation, which will make Karlsruhe the strongest tournament ever held on German soil, as part of a festival with thousands of participants. This will be a pivotal event for Freestyle Chess.
Vincent Keymer | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Freestyle Chess: A new chapter unfolds
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, launched in 2025 by Hamburg-based Freestyle Chess Operations GmbH, spans six tournaments across a minimum of three continents. Co-founded by Magnus Carlsen, this innovative series breaks new ground in classical chess by randomizing back-rank starting positions – removing memorized openings and fostering creativity, strategic complexity, and dynamic gameplay. Fresh, unpredictable, and exhilarating – Freestyle Chess is transforming the game for players and enthusiasts worldwide.
The inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 commenced with a remarkable debut in February at Weissenhaus, surpassing all expectations and demonstrating the vast potential of this new format. Freestyle COO Thomas Harsch remarked on the opening event:
The reach of this event has been astounding—almost three times greater than last year! Additionally, the Community Stream was an enormous success, showcasing how impactful this format can be in making chess more accessible. It’s thrilling to witness the growing enthusiasm for Freestyle and the energy from the community supporting it.
Now, the excitement shifts to Paris, where the Grand Slam builds on this momentum, uniting the world’s best players with a rapidly expanding audience for the next chapter in Freestyle Chess.