Freestyle Friday on February 7 was no less entertaining with another Freestyle Chess event happening at the same time. By the end of the seventh round, none of the 437 players had a perfect score, leaving the identity of the final victor in suspense. Eventually, GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov outlasted everybody and took the throne after defeating GM Alexey Sarana in the final round.
With two rounds left, four players were tied on eight points: Vokhidov, Sarana, GM Pranesh M, and FM Khagan Ahmad. Ahmad ended up facing Vokhidov and lost with White in 28 moves. Sarana needed almost twice as many moves to beat fellow grandmaster Pranesh out of a pretty even starting position.
Their wins—for Sarana, his seventh straight—set up the decisive matchup for all the marbles between Vokhidov and Sarana. An early middlegame misfire put Sarana behind the proverbial eight-ball and he resigned in less than 30 moves.
Sarana held onto fourth place, a paying position, but was passed by GMs Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Nodirbek Yakubboev, the latter of whom put two Uzbekistanis on the podium in an undefeated performance that ended with a win over GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Nonetheless, worse tiebreaks relegated Yakubboev to third place.
February 7 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
(Full final standings.)
Prizes: Vokhidov $400, Ter-Sahakyan $250, Yakubboev $150, Sarana $100, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu $100 (21st place, top woman).
Freestyle Friday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament dedicated to Freestyle Chess for titled players. The tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time.