Freestyle Chess South Africa: Sindarov wins round-robin ahead of Aronian

The opening stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa consisted of a single round-robin tournament with a 10+5 time control. Although no players were eliminated, the results were of clear importance: they decide the quarterfinal pairings. Javokhir Sindarov, fresh from his victory at the FIDE World Cup, was the top scorer, as he obtained 5½/7 points, with wins over Magnus Carlsen, Parham Maghsoodloo, Fabiano Caruana and Hans Niemann. The Uzbek star achieved this feat on his 20th birthday. | Photo: Freestyle Chess / Lennart Ootes