The Las Vegas Freestyle Chess Grand Slam was a Chess960 tournament that took place in Las Vegas, United States from 16 July to 20 July 2025. It was the fourth leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments being held throughout 2025.
Regulation changes
While the second leg had 12 participants playing in the main event, the number of participants was increased to 16 for the fourth leg. However, while before only the top eight players after the round-robin stage qualified for the main knockout bracket, now all the remaining eight players would still play for positions 3-16 in a modified double-elimination style format.
Another change to the format was the time control of the knockout stage, which was reduced from 90 minutes per player to 30, with an unchanged increment of 30 seconds. The change was made to have two games played on the same day and shorten the event's length. The round-robin and tiebreak games were unaffected.
Qualification
All qualification matches were played online and were hosted by Chess.com. All non-titled players started qualification in one of two separate open qualifier events, which were held on June 14 and June 15 respectively, with the top three players from each event advancing to the Swiss stage. 146 players participated in the Swiss stage held on June 18. It was open to all titled players. The top four players, Rasmus Svane, Denis Lazavik, Pranesh M, and Martyn Kravtsiv advanced to the 16-player knockout stage.
Twelve players from the Freestyle Chess Players Club were invited directly to the knockout stage, held on June 19 and June 20. Hans Niemann defeated Denis Lazavik in the final, drawing with black pieces in the armageddon game, and qualified for the Grand Slam.
5th-8th Place The four losers from the quarterfinal round above competed in the 5th-to-8th-place bracket.
Note: The player listed first played as white in the first game of the match. Scores between two players adding up to 2 indicate a win under rapid time controls; adding up to 4, a win under blitz time controls; and adding up to 5, a win in armageddon with bidding.
Main event
Participants Leading up to the later-to-be-called third leg of the Grand Slam Tour, the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open, the organizers of the Freestyle Tour and the Grenke Open announced to publish a world rating list for Freestyle based on the tournament results.
In their updated rules and regulations, Freestyle Chess increased the number of players in a Grand Slam to 16, and replaced the qualification path by FIDE rating with Freestyle rating. +Qualification methodPlayerAgeClassical RatingWorldRanking FreestyleRating(June 2025)The top three finishers in the previous closed Grand Slam Magnus Carlsen 34283712909 Hikaru Nakamura 37280422818 Fabiano Caruana 32277742804World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju 19277652701 Winner of the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open Parham Maghsoodloo 242691382712 Winner of the Aeroflot Open 2025 Ian Nepomniachtchi 34 2757 10 2771The three highest rated players in the June 2025 Freestyle Rating list R Praggnanandhaa 19 2767 7 2773 Vincent Keymer 20 2730 22 2766 Alireza Firouzja 22 2766 8 2764 Wild cards Arjun Erigaisi21278232758 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2027676 2702 Leinier Domínguez412738182749 Levon Aronian422742162737 Wesley So312745142737 Vidit Gujrathi302720252713 Javokhir Sindarov192710292702 Bibisara Assaubayeva2125095472506Replacements Ray Robson 302687402687 Sam Sevian 24268343N/A Winner of the online play-in Hans Niemann222736202722 Sources:
Group Stage The Round-robin stage was changed for the Las Vegas leg. Instead of one full round-robin including every player, the 16 players were broken up into two groups, "White" and "Black". Each player played every other in their respective groups, and the top four from each group advanced to the winners' bracket.
White Group + Round-robin, 16 July 2025 # Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Points TB 1 * ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 4½ 2 ½ * ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 4½ 3 ½ ½ * 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 4½ 4 1 1 0 * 0 0 1 1 4 2 5 0 ½ ½ 1 * 1 0 1 4 0 6 0 0 0 1 0 * 1 1 3 7 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0 * 1 3 8 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 * ½
Black Group + Round-robin, 16 July 2025 # Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Points 1 * 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 6 2 0 * 1 0 1 ½ 1 1 4½ 3 0 0 * ½ ½ 1 1 1 4 4 ½ 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 4 5 ½ 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½ 0 3 6 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 * ½ 1 2½ 7 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1 2½ 8 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 * 1½
Knockout Stage Upper Bracket
Lower Bracket
Fifth and Seventh Place Matches
Final classification PlayerPrize moneyPoints1 $200,000252$140,000183 $100,000154 $60,000125 $50,000106 $40,00087 $30,00068 $20,00049–12 $10,0002 $10,000 $10,000 $10,00013–16 $7,5000 $7,500 $7,500 $7,500Sources:https://www.chess.com/events/2025-freestyle-chess-grand-slam-las-vegas-group-white
References