Chess superstar Magnus Carlsen once again wrote history. This time at the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open in Karlsruhe. The Norwegian took a seat on the board nine times, nine times he got up as the winner. He himself spoke of a performance that he will probably never reach again.
The grenke chess festival 2025 used Magnus Carlsen to once again write chess history. On Monday, the superstar also won his ninth and last game in the freestyle variant and thus voted King of Karlsruhe with a perfect record of nine victories in nine games.
The Norwegian became the first freestyle winner in the history of the festival, which has been held since 2013, but the increasingly popular chess variant was played for the first time this year. In addition to the title, the 34-year-old dropped a prize money of 60,000 euros for his victory.
Bitter from a German perspective: In the ninth game on Monday, Carlsen defeated Vincent Keymer of all people, who in turn needed a victory to qualify for the next tournament of the international freestyle tour in Las Vegas. Keymer won the first tournament of the freestyle tour in Weissenhaus and had become fourth in the second stop in Paris. Germany’s top player will not be there in the city of sin.
Magnus Carlsen: “It’s different”
After his victory, Carlsen admitted that the draw helped him and he only had to play against an opponent with an elo rating of over 2700. “That must be mentioned.” However, this is very high in the series of his biggest victories.
“That is that I play for these days. I remember when I won nine of nine games at a lightning tournament two years ago. That was really special. But it is different again. I will not be able to do it again,” he said about his possibly unique performance.