"What a Blockbuster Day!"
"What a Blockbuster Day!" - that´s how live commentator Lawrence Trent summed up Day 2 of the grenke Chess Festival in Karlsruhe.
Insightful news article after day two by Freestyle Chess: www.freestyle-chess.com/news/fourteen-players-remain-perfect-after-three-rounds/
Two Rounds in One Day
Today, the participants had to complete two full rounds. Videographer Niki Riga captured some atmospheric impressions at the start of the day:
Early Struggles for the Favorites
Several favorites stumbled as early as Round 2: Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer had to settle for draws, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was defeated by the Slovakian player Drusja. Fabiano Caruana narrowly avoided a loss to Bibisara Assaubayeva – already on the verge of defeat, the American capitalized on a critical time-trouble mistake by the Kazakh player to save the game.
Klekowski's Brilliancy
A game that may come only once in a lifetime was played by Polish grandmaster Maciej Klekowski. After sacrificing a rook in move 24 (24. …Nxd7 fails to Bxg7+), he followed up with a second brilliant rook sacrifice in move 26: 26. Rxg7!! – once again, the rook couldn't be taken due to Qg3+. Simply brilliant!
More Upsets in Round 3
Round 3 saw even more surprises: Fabiano Caruana lost to Etienne Bacrot, Ian Nepomniachtchi was defeated by L. Mendonca, and Wesley So fell to D. Kollars. Levon Aronian and Hans Niemann (pictured) drew their game.
Keymer’s Spectacular Game
Vincent Keymer showed in his game against Austrian player Felix Leisch that he, too, is capable of spectacular moves. Four of his moves were labeled brilliant by chess.com – a true rarity. The crowning finish was a textbook mate: 25. …Qf1+, followed by 26. Rxf1 Nxg2# – a Puzzle Rush-style finale.
Carlsen in Full Freestyle Mode
At the top of the leaderboard, Magnus Carlsen currently holds a perfect score – but he's not alone: a total of 14 players remain on 3/3. Carlsen’s game against Sweden’s Nils Grandelius opened with the unconventional 1. h4. In Freestyle Chess, Carlsen loves to start with the h-pawn when the rook is on h1.
Later in the game, he appeared to allow a repetition, only to change course at the last moment – a psychological trick that visibly threw Grandelius off balance. Commentator Lawrence Trent aptly called it “the psychological power of faking a repetition.”
Perfect Scores in the Open
In the classical Open, 51 players still have a perfect score – among them American rating favorite Awonder Liang, as well as several strong German players such as GM Alexander Donchenko and IM Valentin Buckels.
Strong Interest from Fans and Media
Media and audience response has been overwhelmingly positive: public broadcaster SWR aired a special report, and up to 11,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on YouTube, with another 7,000 watching via Twitch.
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are also seeing significantly more activity than last year, thanks in large part to the successful collaboration with the media teams of Freestyle Chess, Take Take Take, and ChessBase India.
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow brings the next exciting rounds – and if today was any indication, we can look forward to more thrilling games. The pairings for the top 15 boards are as follows:
