Movahed Beats Leader Yakubboev to Win Freestyle Friday

GM Sina Movahed won Freestyle Friday on October 30, his second victory in three weeks. He got there from a shaky start, sitting on 1.5/3 after the opening rounds.

From that point he put together an eight-game winning streak. Two out of three, as the old Meat Loaf song goes, ain’t bad.

The decisive game

GM Nodirbek Yakubboev led much of the way and looked the likelier winner. Then came round 10, where Movahed beat him as one link in that eight-game run.

That loss left Yakubboev with second place.

Magnus Carlsen, who had also started on 1.5/3 before four straight wins, escaped with a draw against Yakubboev earlier, then left after Vladimir Fedoseev ended his streak. Leading for most of an event and then meeting the player on a hot streak is a hard spot in a Chess960 format, where no one has opening preparation to fall back on.

The rest of the top four

GM Faustino Oro finished third on tiebreaks. GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son took fourth.

Oro’s day had its own swings. He and GM Zhamsaran Tsydypov were the only players to reach the first break unblemished on 4/4.

Out of the break, Oro missed an early chance to win a piece. He later got into time trouble, which cost him four pawns, and Tsydypov became the last perfect player.

Tsydypov’s slide

Tsydypov’s perfect run did not last. He scored only a combined half-point over his next four rounds and finished 11th.

That is a steep fall for someone who was the lone player with a perfect score at one stage. It also shows how quickly a field can reshuffle over a long event.

The Championship race

The result matters beyond the trophy. Movahed, Yakubboev and Oro all currently hold a qualifying position in the standings for the Freestyle Friday Championship (FFC), which runs through December 4.

With qualifying still to run, none of those places is secure. Movahed’s second win in three weeks gives him a strong claim on one.

WFM Anna Cramling played and streamed the event for Freestyle Chess.