Vincent Keymer stuns Magnus Carlsen to reach Freestyle Chess Weissenhaus final: 'Incredible achievement'

Vincent Keymer was a relieved man after beating world No.1 Magnus Carlsen and reaching the final of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stage 1 on Wednesday. After beating Carlsen in Game 1 of the semi-finals, Keymer played out a draw in the second game to clinch a memorable 1.5-0.5 win over the Norwegian legend .

In a must-win scenario, the co-founder of the tournament, Carlsen, took the lead in Game 2 of the semi-finals by sacrificing a pawn but Keymer defended doggedly and managed to eke out a draw.

Keymer was also part of D Gukesh’s coaching team when the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster went on to beat Ding Liren and become the youngest chess world champion in December 2024.

‘Incredible achievement to beat Magnus’

“Mostly I’m relieved that I managed to survive this very tough game and also it’s for me personally an incredible achievement to beat Magnus in a match,” Keymer told Take Take Take after defeating Carlsen.

“I think mostly it was relief that after kind of messing up a great position, I still managed to survive,” Keymer added talking about his first thoughts after securing a draw.

Also Read | Nakamura explains Gukesh’s ‘biggest weakness’ as Indian GM struggles in Freestyle Chess Tour

While the commentators and experts said it was the best chess they had seen from Keymer, the 20-year-old German Grandmaster wasn’t ready to get carried away just yet. Keymer, however, admitted that he is satisfied with his progress so far.

“I think it is hard to compare classical and freestyle chess in terms of quality but yeah I am pretty satisfied with the quality of game that I am showing here.”

Focussing on moves helped Keymer beat Carlsen

Talking about how he kept his nerves and managed to deny Carlsen a win in Game 2, Keymer said: “I was just trying to focus on the moves because at some moment you can’t really afford to think about all these things (losing), even if something goes wrong after the game, you will have more than enough time to think about everything that you missed or could have played or could have done different, but at that moment, you just have to fully focus on playing the best possible moves. Because I don’t think there was a single moment when I felt that the position was hopeless.”

Keymer will now face world number three Fabiano Caruana in the final.