Hans Niemann defeats Fabiano Caruana to win Diving Chess Championship in unique underwater event

American Grandmaster Hans Niemann won the unique Diving Chess Championship on Thursday where he defeated compatriot Fabiano Caruana in the final to emerge as the winner of the interesting underwater competition. The underwater championship took place in Cape Town, South Africa as a lead-up event to the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals.

India’s Vidit Gujrathi ended up at the fourth and last spot after being beaten by the recently crowned World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov who registered a third-placed finish.

How Diving Chess Championship worked?

Played in the rooftop pool of the Silo Hotel in Cape Town, the underwater event also took place in the freestyle format. A chess board was placed 110 centimetres deep at the bottom of the pool. The players had to dive in and go deep to make their moves. After playing the move, a player comes back to the surface to catch their breath. At this point, their opponent must immediately go underneath to play their own move.

We have a new Ultimate Underwater Chess Champion - @HansMokeNiemann! In a 4-player Dive Freestyle Chess tournament consisting of Hans, Vidit, Sindarov and Caruana, Hans defeated Caruana in the finals, and went on to defeat the World Diving Chess Champion, Michal Mazurkiewicz in… pic.twitter.com/wWcdmBuQiW

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) December 4, 2025

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Hans defeated Caruana to win the medal and later facing Diving Chess World Champion Michal Mazurkiewicz in the same pool. Mazurkiewicz started on a high and won a rook and pawn for a bishop early in the game thanks to a blunder from Hans on the second move.

However, Hans bounced back to emerge as the winner there as well.

2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals

The underwater chess championship was among the events that will lead up to the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals. The fifth and final tournament of the tour takes place from December 8–11 in Cape Town with the Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen headlining the event.

Carlsen alongside other participants Levon Aronian, and Vincent Keymer, visited the University of the Western Cape to meet local chess players. Carlsen and Aronian paired up while Keymer doubled up with his coach Peter Leko to play in two simuls on over 40 boards.

Carlsen and Aronian lost four of their 20 games while Keymer and Leko remained undefeated.

Apart from Gujrathi, India’s top-ranked star Arjun Erigaisi too is the part of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals.