 "Freestyle Chess: Magnus Carlsen set to battle against D Gukesh, Hans Niemann in second leg at Paris")
The second leg of the Magnus Carlsen-led Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 in Paris has been confirmed by the organisers. The first leg took place in February in Weissenhaus, Germany, with local lad Vincent Keymer emerging as the winner .
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stage 2 in Paris will take place from 7 to 14 April as Carlsen gets ready to take on Hans Niemann. The tournament will be played at the Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy in Paris and will feature 12 players instead of 10 as was the case in first leg.
Besides Carlsen and Niemann, the other participants include world champion D Gukesh, Indian Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Keymer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
The 12th player for the event will be picked through an open online qualification competition on Chess.com, which will take place before the tournament begins. The open qualification event will have a $50,000 prize pool.
Here are the details of the qualification tournament:
March 8-9: Open qualifiers on Chess.com
March 12: Swiss-system tournament for titled players
March 13-14: Knockout Stage—top four from the Swiss join 12 invited members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club to compete for the final Paris seat
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Paris leg will have a prize pool of $750,000, including $200,000 for the winner.
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Paris leg format
The tournament will begin with a two-day round-robin phase, where players face off in a series of matches. The top eight will then advance to the knockout stage.
Over the next six days, classical time-control matches will set the stage for an intense battle, leading to a thrilling finale.
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