The restarted Freestyle Friday season has a different winner every week, and the same scoreline. Matthias Bluebaum, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Sina Movahed each took a Friday with 9/11.
Those weekly points still feed the Freestyle Friday Championship and the last seats at the 2027 world championship in Weissenhaus. The format of the road back is already set, and Pranav Venkatesh and Anna Muzychuk booked their places in the first half of the year. The October table is about everyone still chasing.
October 2: Bluebaum wins the return
Matthias Bluebaum won the first Friday of the new stretch outright on 9 points. Oleksandr Bortnyk, Pranav Venkatesh, and S. L. Narayanan finished together on 8.5. Venkatesh is already qualified for Weissenhaus, so the points that matter for a new seat belong to the players around him.
Rose Atwell took the women’s prize. Vidit Gujrathi commentated the broadcast with James Dash.
October 9: Maghsoodloo in a star field
Parham Maghsoodloo won the next Friday on 9. His only loss was to Nodirbek Yakubboev. Oleksandr Bortnyk was second after winning his last three games. Thirteen-year-old Sergey Sklokin and Jan-Krzysztof Duda tied for third on 8.5.
The field included Vincent Keymer, Gata Kamsky, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Anna Muzychuk. Dina Belenkaya commentated on YouTube while she played. Polina Shuvalova took the women’s prize. Chess.com reported that Muzychuk was still 21 points clear on the women’s season leaderboard.
October 16: Movahed’s sixth Friday
Sina Movahed won on 9. It was his sixth Freestyle Friday title, his first since January 30, and his first of this championship. He started 7/7, lost to Faustino Oro, then pulled clear again.
Haowen Xue took second on tiebreak, ahead of Ian Nepomniachtchi. Both finished on 8.5. Felix Ilinca was fourth. Polina Shuvalova took the women’s prize for the second Friday in a row.
Magnus Carlsen played, lost in round one, and later left the event after a loss to Pouya Idani. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave streamed the tournament for Freestyle Chess and finished ninth.
The same names, a different order
Oleksandr Bortnyk was second on October 2 and second again on October 9, then sixth on 8 when Movahed won. Sina Movahed climbed from 7.5 to 8 and then to a win. Parham Maghsoodloo took October 9 and was back in the field the next Friday, finishing on 7.
No one has turned three weeks into a locked seat. The Fridays run through December 4. The top seven in each field then play a knockout, with quarterfinals on December 11 and the semifinals and final on December 18.
Watch live at 17:00 Central European Time on the Freestyle Chess YouTube channel, Chess.com, and DAZN. Or play a random position before the next Friday starts.