Every semifinal game from the 2026 Freestyle Chess World Championship
Before the final, two four-game semifinal matches: Magnus Carlsen against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Fabiano Caruana against Vincent Keymer. Both were won 3-1. All eight games, real moves, each replayable below — plus the 3rd-place match further down. Before all of this, the 28-game round robin set the bracket.
Carlsen v Abdusattorov — Carlsen won 3-1
Game 1 — Abdusattorov-Carlsen, draw
Abdusattorov with White. A long rook-and-bishop ending grew out of a fairly even middlegame; both sides shed material until a draw was the only realistic outcome, agreed after 48 moves.
Game 3 — Carlsen-Abdusattorov, draw
Carlsen with White. A queen trade on move 17 took the sting out of the position; what was left was a long same-colour-bishop ending that neither side could convert, drawn after 44 moves.
Game 5 — Carlsen-Abdusattorov, Carlsen wins
Carlsen with White. A queenside pawn storm from move 2 committed both sides early; Carlsen's rook infiltrated on the seventh rank and a passed d-pawn did the rest, promoting on move 47 before White resigned.
Game 7 — Abdusattorov-Carlsen, Carlsen wins
Abdusattorov with White, needing a win to stay in the match. It went the other way: Carlsen's central break on move 11 left White's king exposed, and a rook and knight combination broke through in the middlegame — White's position collapsed by move 29, closing out the match 3-1.
Caruana v Keymer — Caruana won 3-1
Game 2 — Keymer-Caruana, Caruana wins
Keymer with White. Caruana's pieces found the queenside first and never let go; a long technical grind through a rook ending eventually broke through, 72 moves in.
Game 4 — Caruana-Keymer, draw
Caruana with White. An early queenside skirmish traded down into a rook ending a pawn down for Black; Keymer held it with accurate defense, drawn on move 53.
Game 6 — Caruana-Keymer, draw
Caruana with White. Keymer's queenside counterplay turned into a real attack — by move 33 he had won material and was pressing Caruana's king across the board — but Caruana's king found enough shelter to survive, and the point was split after 68 moves.
Game 8 — Keymer-Caruana, Caruana wins
Keymer with White, needing a win to force a tiebreak. A queenside expansion opened his own king up instead, and Caruana's pieces poured through — the game and the match were over by move 22.
Third place — Abdusattorov beat Keymer 2.5-1.5
The two semifinal losers played each other for third, the same day as the final. A tighter match than either semifinal: two draws, a win apiece, settled by Abdusattorov's win in game one.
Game 1 — Abdusattorov-Keymer, draw
Abdusattorov with White. A long-running rook ending, a pawn up for White for most of it, that Keymer defended accurately down to a bare-bones finish, drawn after 52 moves.
Game 2 — Keymer-Abdusattorov, Abdusattorov wins
Keymer with White. An exchange sacrifice on move 7 gave Abdusattorov a bishop for a rook and a real initiative; it told quickly, over inside 24 moves.
Game 3 — Keymer-Abdusattorov, draw
Keymer with White. A long bishop-versus-knight middlegame turned into an even longer king-and-bishop ending; Abdusattorov's passed d-pawn kept it alive but couldn't force the win, drawn after 59 moves.
Game 4 — Abdusattorov-Keymer, draw
Abdusattorov with White. Keymer's rook found the seventh rank and enough perpetual-check tries to hold a repetition, splitting the point and the match.