How much did Carlsen earn from winning Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam? Check out prize money and final standings

After falling narrowly short in Weissenhaus with a shock semi-final defeat against Vincent Keymer, Magnus Carlsen bounced back in style to win the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, defeating Hikaru Nakamura in final on Monday. Carlsen had arrived in the French capital looking to prove a point after his slip up in the opening event of the tour, and stamped his authority by cruising to victory without a single tie-break in the eight-day event.

After the disappointment of failing to reach the Weissenhaus semi-finals in February, Nakamura went all the way to the final in the ‘City of Light’ to finish runner-up. The American Grandmaster could have taken the blockbuster final against the world No 1 into the tie-breaks had he not committed a blunder in his 35th move in Game 1 on Sunday. Carlsen simply needed a draw on Monday to clinch the title, and did so with ease.

Caruana, meanwhile, avenged his defeat against Keymer in the Weissenhaus final by defeating the German GM in the third-place playoff while Arjun Erigaisi finished fifth on Freestyle Chess debut after beating home favourite Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

How much prize money will Carlsen and the other players take home from the Paris Grand Slam?

The prize money on offer is the same in each of the five events in the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour – a total of $750,000 with a majority of those funds going to those participating in the main event and a small fraction distributed among the Freestyle Chess Players Club members.

The break-up of the prize money, however, differed between Weissenhaus and Paris due to the number of participants with the latter having two more players.

The winner in both events took home $200,000 and the runner-up $140,000. After Keymer and Caruana in Weissenhaus, it was Carlsen and Nakamura who took home the biggest pay cheques after finishing first and second respectively in Paris.

Here’s a breakdown of the prize money allocated for each event in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour:

1st: $200,000

2nd: $140,000

3rd: $100,000

4th: $60,000

5th: $50,000

6th: $40,000

7th: $30,000

8th: $20,000

9th: $15,000

10th: $10,000

11th: $7,500

12th: $7,500

What are the final standings in the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour?

Here are the final standings in the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam:

1st: Magnus Carlsen (Norway)

2nd: Hikaru Nakamura (USA)

3rd: Fabiano Caruana (USA)

4th: Vincent Keymer (Germany)

5th: Arjun Erigaisi (India)

6th: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)

7th: Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia)

8th: Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan)

9th: R Praggnanandhaa (India)

10th: Richard Rapport (Hungary)

11th (shared): D Gukesh (India) and Vidit Gujrathi (India)