GM Benjamin Bok claimed his first Freestyle Friday title on March 20, scoring 9.5/11 for an outright win ahead of GM Sina Movahed and GM Conrad Holt. This marks the fifth different winner in as many weeks of the Chess.com Freestyle Friday Championship and Bok as the 25th unique event victor. He tweeted: "Won today's @chesscom Freestyle Friday! Good warm-up for a bigger event this weekend..."
Freestyle Friday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players in Freestyle Chess, held Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Bok surged to victory with detailed play: Five players hit 4/4 early, but only IM Renato Terry reached 5/5 before blundering a castling exchange to Movahed in round 5. Bok joined the leaders by beating GM S. Rohith Krishna, GM Parham Maghsoodloo, and prior week's winner GM Pranav Venkatesh.
In round 6, Bok defeated Terry and Maghsoodloo beat Movahed, both at 6.5/7; GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son had 6. Round 7 saw a Bok-Maghsoodloo draw. Bok then overcame Nguyen in round 8 despite time trouble, while Maghsoodloo brilliantly dispatched GM Pranesh M on moves 15-16. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi stayed close after beating Holt.
Post-second break, Bok converted a rook endgame vs. Nepomniachtchi for sole lead as Maghsoodloo lost to Terry. Round 10: Bok drew Movahed under time pressure; Maghsoodloo blundered a rook to GM Faustino Oro. Final round: Bok beat Oro, Movahed downed Nepomniachtchi for second, Holt beat Terry for third. Terry took fourth on tiebreaks with 8 points.
IM Mai Narva won the women's prize in 11th, the first non-Muzychuk/Kosteniuk this series and rising to third in women's standings. Prizes: Bok $400, Movahed $250, Holt $150, Terry $100, Narva $100. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk leads Championship standings despite no cash this week, uniquely placing once in each top-5 spot over five weeks.
