Romanian GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac scored 8 wins and 2 draws to win the December 26 Freestyle Friday tournament with 9 points. Runner-up IM Eray Kilic won nine times and lost twice, which led him to finish second with 9 points as well.

Three players finished with 9 points and three players with 8 points, requiring a tiebreak to decide the final standings. The Freestyle Friday Top 5 (December 26, 2025) are:

1. GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac – 9 points (TB: 71)

2. IM Eray Kilic – 9 points (TB: 68.5)

3. GM Jeffery Xiong– 9 points (TB: 66)

4. FM Artin Ashraf – 8 points (TB: 74)

5. GM Grigoriy Oparin – 8 points (TB: 67.5)

Freestyle Friday is a weekly Chess.com event for verified titled players, featuring the Chess960 variant. The event is an 11-round Swiss tournament with a 3+1 time control featuring a $1,000 weekly prize fund.

Credit: Lennart Ootes