Pranesh Nearly Perfect To End 1st Half Of Freestyle Friday Championship

GM Pranesh M began 9/9 and finished 10.5/11 in Freestyle Friday on June 26, his first victory of the year and fourth overall, as the first half of the Freestyle Friday Championship (FFC) came to its conclusion. FFC leader GM Pranav Venkatesh finished in eighth place, as GM Oleksandr Bortnyk instead played his match in the Bullet Chess Championship, so Pranav qualifies for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship, while Bortnyk will carry a sizeable lead over into the second half of the FFC, starting in September. Pranesh doubled his standings score this week, putting him in eighth place among the remaining FFC players after Pranav. GM Anna Muzychuk had already qualified for the Women’s Championship and went ahead and won this week’s women’s prize for good measure. 

GM Dmitry Andreikin, who would finish in second place in this week’s tournament with 9.5 points, reached 4/4 before the first break with games like this devastating performance against NM Ethan Sheehan. 

Also on 4/4 were Pranesh, GM Alexey Sarana, and IM Marco Materia. Pranesh would go on to defeat Andreikin in the fifth round, the only loss he would suffer in the tournament, and was joined on 5/5 by Materia. In the sixth-round Pranesh–Materia battle, Materia gained a small edge, but used a lot of clock to do it. The game turned into a promotion race, but Pranesh was able to stop Materia’s pawn in its tracks, while Materia had to lose a rook for Pranesh’s.

Andreikin recovered in the seventh round by adding to Materia’s woes in just 17 moves. Sarana joined Andreikin in second place, while Pranesh came back against GM Volodar Murzin to open up a full-point lead. Pranesh’s perfect run only continued against Sarana in round eight, as Andreikin stayed within a point by beating GM Vincent Keymer, while GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Bardiya Daneshvar remained 1.5 points back with wins. Pranesh next got White against Maghsoodloo, whom the engine says missed a single deep and difficult chance to turn the tables before Pranesh ultimately hit 9/9.

Elsewhere in the round, Andreikin remained undefeated against his non-Pranesh opponents and made 8/9, with only GM David Navara on 7/9.

Navara was Pranesh’s next opponent, and the tournament leader, despite the remaining chance at a perfect 11/11, was happy to draw by repetition in 24 moves to help lock a high finish. Andreikin, facing Pranav, had two chances to find a spectacular conclusion and located it the second time, moving to half a point behind Pranesh.

Pranesh and Andreikin had now clinched the top two, but with their final order still an open question. In the last round, Pranesh faced GM Nodirbek Yakubboev and Andreikin took on Murzin. Pranesh, with the standings lead, again steered the game toward trades while Andreikin, trying to catch up, traded blows with Murzin. Their game ultimately concluded first, and in a draw, leaving Pranesh only needing to hold his own draw in an equal knight ending. But Yakubboev, with little time on the clock and finding his knight run offside, tried to rush it back into play and picked the most natural move to do so—but ultimately a losing one.

Maghsoodloo defeated Navara in the final round to move to 8.5/11 and take third place outright. Fourth place on 8/11 tiebreaks went to Sarana ahead of Murzin, Materia, and IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa.

June 26 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)

(Full final standings.)