World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, who had won the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour last year, defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3-1 to enter the final, where he faces world No 3 Fabiano Caruana – who beat Vincent Keymer 2.5-1.5.
World No 1 and reigning Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour champions Magnus Carlsen sailed into the final of the inaugural Freestyle Chess World Championship, where he faces world No 3 Fabiano Caruana, after beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3-1 in the semi-finals on Saturday. Caruana defeated German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer 2.5-1.5 in the other semi-final showdown to confirm a dream final with the Norwegian at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort in Wangels, Germany.
Carlsen stamps his authority over Nodirbek
Carlsen had picked Nodirbek as his semi-final opponent after topping the round-robin standings despite suffering a
stunning defeat at the hands of Arjun Erigaisi. The semi-final showdown began with consecutive draws, the two players choosing to shake hands on level terms in both games with Carlsen holding fort despite facing serious time pressure in Game 2.
Carlsen surged ahead in Game 3 while playing as white, beating Nodirbek in 48 moves. Both players were in the mood to attack in this round, with both sets of bishops and knights getting knocked off the board by the 26th move. The Uzbekistani GM, however, committed a blunder (33. Re2) while pushing for a win, allowing his celebrated opponent to seize control and grind him into submission.
Nodirbek needed to win Game 4 in order to level the scores and force the semi-final showdown to head into tie-breaks. Carlsen, however, maintained a stable position on the board despite committing a couple of errors (19. h4 and 24. Nc5) and won in just 29 moves after cornering the white king with a knight, a rook and his queen to complete a 3-1 triumph.
Nodirbek had a considerable time advantage over his fancied opponent – three-and-a-half minutes compared to less than half-a-minute for Carlsen. The 35-year-old, however, reiterated the fact that it will take more than just time pressure to beat the best in the world.
Caruana vs Keymer showdown goes into decider
As for the other semi-final, Caruana had drawn first blood while playing as black and maintained a lead over his opponent with a draw in the second game. Keymer, however, made things interesting by leveling the scores in Game 3 to setup a decider in the fourth and final rapid game.
The first three games were hard-fought encounters. Caruana defeated Keymer in 72 moves in Game 1, while the latter returned the favour in 68 moves in Game 3. Caruana, however, sealed a 2.5-1.5 victory in dominant fashion after winning game four in just 22 moves while playing as black, with nearly seven minutes left on the clock compared to just 20 seconds for his opponent.
🇳🇴 Magnus Carlsen vs 🇺🇸 Fabiano Caruana in the final!#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/uuAQi8MnZS
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) February 14, 2026
The final between Carlsen and Caruana gets underway on Sunday, 15 February, with Game 4 and the Armageddon tie-break taking place on Monday, if necessary. The winner will pocket a prize money of $100,000 while the runner-up takes home $60,000.
Indian No 1 Arjun, who had finished sixth out of eight players in the round-robin stage, defeated Javokhir Sindarov 3-1 and will be facing American GM Hans Niemann for the fifth place starting Sunday.
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