Maghsoodloo Takes Freestyle Friday on 9/11 Among 112 Masters

GM Parham Maghsoodloo won the latest Freestyle Friday with 9/11, and the result moves him a step closer to qualifying for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. His only blemish was a loss to GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, one of Uzbekistan’s Olympiad heroes.

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk took second after winning his last three games. IM Sergey Sklokin and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda rounded out the top four.

A field with real weight

This was October’s second Freestyle Friday, and 112 masters took part. Six current or former 2700-rated players were in the field: Maghsoodloo, Yakubboev, Duda, GM Amin Tabatabaei, GM Gata Kamsky and GM Vincent Keymer.

Others from outside the top-rating bracket added star power. Former women’s world champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and two-time women’s world blitz champion GM Anna Muzychuk played. So did several content creators, among them WFM Anna Cramling and GM Eric Hansen.

WGM Dina Belenkaya commentated live on YouTube while also playing, which is a juggling act few players would attempt in a field this strong.

Duda and Keymer in round six

Duda arrived in form. Less than a day earlier he had won the first 3 0 Thursday of the week, and in round six he beat Keymer to emerge as a frontrunner.

The game had the hallmarks of a clash between two super-GMs, with plenty of complexity, and it was fitting that it was decided in time trouble.

In a format where the starting position is shuffled, there is no opening theory to lean on, so a game like that tends to turn on calculation and the clock rather than preparation.

What the result means

Nine points from eleven in a field with that many 2700 players is a strong score, and a single loss to Yakubboev kept Maghsoodloo clear of the pack. Bortnyk’s late surge of three straight wins was enough for second, while Duda’s round-six win over Keymer put him in the top four.