Magnus Carlsen is the winner of Grenke Freestyle Chess 2025. The five-time classical World Champion is proving to be unstoppable at Freestyle (aka Chess960 or Fischer Random) too. After Carlsen’s Freestyle victory in Paris, now he managed to secure the Grenke Freestyle Chess 2025 title with a round to spare. (replay Carlsen’s games here)
Magnus Carlsen — Chessdom (@chessdom) April 21, 2025
wins @GRENKEChess 2025 with perfect 9,0/9, setting a NEW RECORD for highest performance 
https://t.co/6i95vBEnuT
Carlsen sets NEW RECORD for highest performance
The rampage of Carlsen became clear after he started with 5,0/5. His CPR (a measurement more reliable than TPR, read about it here) then jumped over 3000. He then continued with 7,0/7 on Easter bringing the CPR to 3094. With 8,0/8 he reached 3122 CPR.
With the victory against Keymer in the last round, Carlsen completes the event with 9,0/9 and CPR of 3153! That is the highest mark of modern history, passing the performance of Caruana in Sinquefield Cup 2014.
This is the second chess record of the week, after Tunde Onakoya and Shawn Martinez completed playing chess for 64 hours
Here is the all times best CPR performance list by Dr. Mehmet Ismail before Grenke 2025
The CPR before 1972 are based on only estimated chessmetrics ratings. The official Elo best ones are Carlsen and then Caruana. Dr Mehmet Ismail adds that the “perfect score performance rating” is 3191 (that is the CPR without considering the lowest rated player such as the one of 2227)
Magnus wins his R6 and R7 games at @GRENKEChess today and leads the #FreestyleChess with 7,0/7 — Chessdom (@chessdom) April 20, 2025
Can Magnus go all the way to 9,0/9 tomorrow?https://t.co/ZVbEkmbWdH
And here comes the blunder! 25…Nf5 and Carlsen will finish @GRENKEChess with perfect 9,0/9 — Chessdom (@chessdom) April 21, 2025https://t.co/RzuQdVJynZ
Magnus Carlsen — Chessdom (@chessdom) April 21, 2025
wins his R8 game and the tournament @GRENKEChess with a round to spear https://t.co/ZVbEkmbWdH Now the only question remaining, can he make a perfect 9,0/9
Chess speaks for itself
While Niemann’s appearance after 12 days of radio silence was the key motif of the first rounds, chess spoke for itself and Carlsen’s performance acted like a magnet for all media covering the event.
Niemann himself finished with a lower than expected score, but he was followed by a team of Netflix, who are shooting yet another episode of Netflix UNTOLD 2025 – Carlsen – Niemann story. This will be an ongoing story, here is a timeline of the events so far:
05.04. Norwegian TV reports that Niemann is withdrawing after he was informed about anti-cheating
05.04 Breaking: Hans Niemann withdraws from Freestyle Chess Paris 2025 (rolling updates)
06.04 Reactions to Hans Niemann withdrawing from Paris Freestyle Chess 2025
06.04 Chess Song: Disappearing stars (Hans Niemann & Alireza Firouza) #TweetOftheDay
06.04 The organizer of Freestyle Chess Paris comments on the withdraw of Hans Niemann
17.04 Hans Niemann shows at round 1 of Grenke Chess after 12 days radio silence
17.04. Round 1 pairings of Grenke with Hans Niemann playing
19.04 Interview with Hans Niemann at Grenke
More about Grenke Chess 2025
There will be more coverage of Grenke, with exclusive stories and news coming in the Chessdom Newsletter, that is scheduled to launch THIS week. It is FREE and you will get it daily in the mailbox, signup with your email in the form below
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More about Grenke Live games / Information Interviews Rasmus Svane about the secret to finding the best first move in Freestyle chess / Chess speaks for itself, with Hans Niemann at Grenke / Alexander Grischuk: “I prefer blitz, rapid of freestyle” Chess Song No Foolin’ This Time (Hans Niemann)
Final standings of Grenke Chess Freestyle 2025
Stay tuned for the final standings of Grenke Chess Freestyle 2025