Yakubboev Wins Freestyle Friday With 9.5, Nepomniachtchi Second

GM Nodirbek Yakubboev won the November 6 Freestyle Friday with 9.5 points, a half-point ahead of GM Ian Nepomniachtchi on nine. No one else in the field passed eight. It was Yakubboev’s second win in the weekly event, after April 24.

The result also moves both men up the Freestyle Friday Championship (FFC) table, with only four tournaments left before the Freestyle World Championship field is decided. For anyone new to the format, our Chess960 explainer covers how the shuffled starting positions work.

A slow start for both

Neither leader began quickly. Yakubboev drew in round two, and Nepomniachtchi lost that round. Nepomniachtchi lost again in round nine, to Yakubboev.

GMs Hans Niemann and Fabiano Caruana were the only players to open 4/4. Both escaped what GM Jan Gustafsson, commentating for Freestyle Chess, called “deep, deep trouble” in round four. Niemann then outplayed Caruana in round five and won a pawn ending Gustafsson called out as coming from a study.

The middle rounds

GM Arseniy Nesterov, who had beaten Yakubboev in round five to leave him on 3.5/5, beat Niemann in round six. In the same round Nepomniachtchi beat 13-year-old IM Sergey Sklokin-Bagiyan, who had entered on 4.5/5. GM Gata Kamsky beat Caruana, who dropped out of the group on five points.

Nepomniachtchi beat Nesterov in round seven and then Niemann in round eight to take the sole lead.

Against Niemann, who had not moved a piece on half the board by move 15, Nepomniachtchi was winning less than ten moves later.

In the same round Yakubboev beat Kamsky, who had Black, joining GMs Alexey Sarana and Nils Grandelius on 6.5/8.

The decisive game

Round nine settled the tournament. Yakubboev, who won all six of his games after round five, got the better of the opening, and Nepomniachtchi made him work until a sudden blunder on move 43. Grandelius beat Sarana in the same round, which left Grandelius level with Yakubboev at the top.

In round ten Nepomniachtchi recovered by beating Grandelius in 22 moves. Yakubboev kept his lead by beating Niemann, whose king ran for the edge of the board and was about to be mated when he resigned. FM Artin Ashraf ended GM Oleksandr Bortnyk’s streak.

In the last round Yakubboev, with White against Ashraf, struggled to get going. Nepomniachtchi meanwhile beat IM Khuong Duy Dau. Yakubboev finally won a piece from a pin and closed out the title.

Prizes and the FFC race

Grandelius and Ashraf took third and fourth on tiebreaks at eight points. Prizes were $400 for Yakubboev, $250 for Nepomniachtchi, $150 for Grandelius and $100 for Ashraf. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won the women’s prize, also $100, and 10 points in the women’s FFC standings.

The FFC top eight now reads:

• Bortnyk, 69 points
• Pranav V, 65 (already qualified from Split 1)
• Yakubboev, 64
• Sina Movahed, 48
• Parham Maghsoodloo, 43
• Jan-Krzysztof Duda, 34
• IM Renato Terry, 33
• Nepomniachtchi, 30

Yakubboev sits one point behind Pranav V for second, and Nepomniachtchi has entered the qualifying places. Eighth place at 30 points looks fragile, since a single strong finish by a player outside the top eight could change it.

Freestyle Friday starts at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, 17:00 Central European and 20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the next one is the following Friday.