GM Hans Niemann won his third Freestyle Friday on October 23, scoring nine points and defeating last week's winner, GM Sina Movahed, on tiebreaks, as well as in their individual encounter in round 10. Like Movahed, the win was Niemann's first in the Freestyle Friday Championship (FFC) era of the tournament. With the win he climbed into the top 10 in the FFC standings.

IM Sagar Shah streamed and commentated for Freestyle Chess:

Niemann made one draw, and Movahed two, in the first four rounds, and Niemann then also lost his first game out of the first break to eventual fourth-place finisher IM Reza Mahdavi. In an attempt to get tricky, Niemann missed Mahdavi's own counter-trick, and had to resign only a few moves later.

The last perfect player was in fact GM Parham Maghsoodloo, who won this event two weeks ago and ended up finishing third this week. Maghsoodloo reached 6/6 before GM Rasmus Svane held him to a draw. Still holding sole lead on 6.5/7, Maghsoodloo next faced Movahed, and after that was no longer holding any form of the lead. Meanwhile, Niemann was in the middle of a five-game winning streak with games like this one against GM Faustino Oro.

Oro ended in eighth place and gained FFC points. He remains the "Messi of Chess" (while the Messi of Football is trying to learn chess openings), but he later also lost to bronze-winning Maghsoodloo in just nine moves, in an instructive, only-in-Freestyle miniature.

By the end of nine rounds, Movahed was in control of the tournament, separating from erstwhile coleader Aravindh in the round. A quiet-looking game approaching move 30 was over by move 40.

But Niemann would return the favor in round 10, taking out Movahed in what ended up being the decisive game of the tournament.

Mahdavi, who had also been tied for second with Niemann, failed to keep pace. With but one round now to go, that gave Niemann the chance to win the tournament outright versus Aravindh, while Movahed looked to keep winning chances alive versus IM Renato Terry. Movahed did his job, while Niemann–Aravindh descended into chaos after Aravindh sacrificed a piece to leave Niemann's two remaining ones stuck on g1 and h1. Niemann ran into further trouble, but did well to just hold the draw.

The half-point ended up being enough to win the tournament after his tiebreaks easily cleared Movahed's, while the women's prize was won by IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham.

October 23 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)

Prizes: Niemann $400, Movahed $250, Maghsoodloo $150, Mahdavi $100, Le $100.