diff --git a/common/chat.cpp b/common/chat.cpp
index 1b9bc798c..c97c9e087 100644
--- a/common/chat.cpp
+++ b/common/chat.cpp
@@ -548,6 +548,8 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_deepseek_r1(const common_chat_
                 "\"<｜tool▁call▁begin｜>function<｜tool▁sep｜>" + name + "\\n```json\\n\" " + args_rule + " \"```<｜tool▁call▁end｜>\""));
         });
         data.grammar_triggers.push_back({"<｜tool▁calls▁begin｜>", /* .at_start = */ false});
+        data.grammar_triggers.push_back({"<｜tool_calls_begin｜>", /* .at_start = */ false});
+        data.grammar_triggers.push_back({"<｜tool calls begin｜>", /* .at_start = */ false});
         data.preserved_tokens = {
             "<think>",
             "</think>",
@@ -557,8 +559,10 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_deepseek_r1(const common_chat_
             "<｜tool▁call▁end｜>",
         };
         builder.add_rule("root",
-            "\"<｜tool▁calls▁begin｜>\""
-            " (" +string_join(tool_rules, " | ") + ")" + (inputs.parallel_tool_calls ? "*" : "") + 
+            // Distill Qwen 7B & 32B models seem confused re/ syntax of their tool call opening tag,
+            // so we accept common variants (then it's all constrained)
+            "( \"<｜tool▁calls▁begin｜>\" | \"<｜tool_calls_begin｜>\" | \"<｜tool calls begin｜>\" ) "
+            "(" +string_join(tool_rules, " | ") + ")" + (inputs.parallel_tool_calls ? "*" : "") + " "
             "\"<｜tool▁calls▁end｜>\""
             " space");
     }, grammar_options);
@@ -581,7 +585,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_deepseek_r1(const common_chat_
     return data;
 }
 static common_chat_msg common_chat_parse_deepseek_r1(const std::string & input) {
-    static std::regex trigger_regex("<｜tool▁calls▁begin｜>");
+    static std::regex trigger_regex("<｜tool▁calls▁begin｜>|<｜tool_calls_begin｜>|<｜tool calls begin｜>");
     static std::regex function_regex("<｜tool▁call▁begin｜>function<｜tool▁sep｜>([^\n]+)\n```json\n");
     static std::regex close_regex("```<｜tool▁call▁end｜>");
     static std::regex think_regex(R"(<think>([\s\S\n]*)</think>([\s\S\r\n]*))");
@@ -591,6 +595,9 @@ static common_chat_msg common_chat_parse_deepseek_r1(const std::string & input)
         msg.thoughts = string_trim(match[1].str());
         msg.content = string_trim(match[2].str());
     }
+    if (msg.content == "<｜tool▁calls▁end｜>") {
+        msg.content = "";
+    }
     return msg;
 }
 
diff --git a/examples/server/README.md b/examples/server/README.md
index d3392524d..4a8ba4d69 100644
--- a/examples/server/README.md
+++ b/examples/server/README.md
@@ -1206,8 +1206,7 @@ curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
   llama-server --jinja -fa -hf bartowski/Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407-GGUF:Q6_K_L
   llama-server --jinja -fa -hf bartowski/functionary-small-v3.2-GGUF:Q4_K_M
   llama-server --jinja -fa -hf bartowski/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M
-  llama-server --jinja -fa -hf bartowski/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
-  llama-server --jinja -fa -hf bartowski/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B-GGUF:Q6_K_L
+  llama-server --jinja -fa -hf bartowski/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
 
   # Native support requires the right template for these GGUFs: