Grenke Festival: Jacobson Shares First in Open A, Paragua Qualifies for FM, Carlsen Sweeps Freestyle

The Grenke Chess Festival — held April 17 through 21 in Karlsruhe, Germany — saw top grandmasters compete alongside amateurs in a unique mixture of classical and freestyle chess. The time control for both the classical and Freestyle events was a sudden death time control of 90 minutes per game with 30-second increment on move one. 

With the 225,000 Euro prize fund, the Freestyle A-Open attracted most of the strongest competitors. Here, GM Magnus Carlsen dominated headlines with his spectacular 9/9 performance to win the tournament ahead of a formidable field of elite competitors. 

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Carlsen with Freestyle Chess founder Jan Henric Buettner (Photo courtesy of Grenke/Dariusz Gorzinski)

Indeed, some players — including American GM Awonder Liang, most notably — took advantage of a unique rule to transfer their points after four rounds from the classical A-Open to the Freestyle A-Open. Unfortunately for Liang, this was just in time for a date with Carlsen. Considering the creativity of Liang's play and his comfort in unorthodox positions, the way Carlsen quickly claimed a significant advantage with the black pieces was impressive.

As the old joke goes, Carlsen won the exhibition, but who was going to win the tournament? With winning chances late in his last-round game against GM Leinier Dominguez, it looked like GM Parham Maghsoodloo was going to earn clear second with a 7½/9 score. As if the $30,000 Euro prize for second wasn't enough, this would also earn Maghsoodloo an invitation to the next Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event this July in Las Vegas. 

After Dominguez clawed back to hold the draw, he and Maghsoodloo both joined a seven-way tie for second on 7/9 along with GMs Andrey Esipenko, Frederik Svane, Alexey Sarana, Fabiano Caruana, and Arjun Erigaisi. When all the games were finished, nevertheless Maghsoodloo emerged with the best tiebreaks, still qualifying for Las Vegas!

The power of Team work!

Parham Maghsoodloo had tears in his eyes after the final round of Freestyle Chess at the Grenke Open in Karlsruhe. 

The reason: he botched up a winning position against Leinier Dominguez in the final round and missed his chance of finishing 2nd behind… pic.twitter.com/ZuZnixEMcp

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) April 22, 2025

It was a deserving result for Maghsoodloo, who was also inches away from holding his game against Carlsen earlier in the event:

In the classical A-Open, American GM Brandon Jacobson delivered a strong 8/9 performance to tie for first with Indian IM S. Aswath. Aswath, who defeated Jacobson in their head-to-head game, took home the first-place trophy (on tie-breaks) and a GM norm. Each player also earned $15,000 Euros, splitting the top two prizes. 

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The Grenke Open winners, with Jacobson (in black) sixth from left (Photo courtesy of Grenke/Dariusz Gorzinski)

Next week's Wednesday Workout will feature some tactical gems from Jacobson's event (making it his second Workout appearance of the year), but, for today, enjoy a fine positional gem from his penultimate game:

GM Andy Woodward was the next top-placing American, tying for ninth with a 7/9 score. The tenacity, patience, and stamina of the talented junior was on full display in his penultimate game. Out of the opening, Woodward enjoyed a healthy space advantage, but one premature pawn thrust on move 36 gave his opponent more chances for counterplay. No matter, Woodward figured, going on to win two-bishops-and-knight versus bishop-and-knight in a 120-move epic. Remember, there was no bonus time added on move 40, either!

Also making waves in the A-Open was 12-year-old WFM Megan Paragua. The New Yorker crossed the 2300 FIDE rating threshold after round 6 of the tournament, making her eligible for the FM title at the next FIDE Congress. 

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Paragua at the 2024 U.S. Girls Junior Championship (Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Anthony Levin's Chess.com article on Paragua's achievement is a must-read, featuring several of Paragua's Grenke games (which were not previously available) as well as historical reference points for her talent. For context, according to Levin's reporting, GM Hou Yifan and IM Alice Lee were the two girls closest to Paragua's age when they crossed the 2300 FIDE threshold. That's good company!

More of Paragua's play can be found in this Tactics Tuesday worksheet from earlier this year.