Dommaraju Gukesh, reigning world champion and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen are all set to feature in the Freestyle Chess Grand Tour, beginning on February 7th in Weissenhaus, Germany. This isn't just another chess tournament though, with a public spat involving Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner, the promoters of the FCGT with FIDE, chess's governing body in the build-up to the tournament.
The Grand Tour, which features five 'Grand Slams in various locations around the world throughout the year, features the world's top chess players competing in a new format of chess that many predict will be the one to reinvigorate the sport. FIDE have taken issue with the FCGT's positioning as a 'world championship' and allegations of blackmail, calls for resignation and plenty have flowed back-and-forth, with the FCGT claiming FIDE are threatening top chess players.
So does the Freestyle Chess Grand Tour not have FIDE's blessing?
Both parties have pushed their issues aside for the moment, but there's a lot to cover...
There's been a long spat between the promoters of the FCGT and FIDE, with the former accusing chess's governing body of threatening top players with expulsion from the FIDE Chess World Championship cycle should they participate in other 'world championships' - such as the FCGT. FIDE's contention has always been with the FCGT's use of the term World Championship in promotional materials, and their term of 'World Champion' for the winner at the end of the five grand slams come the end of 2025. FIDE had already organised a Fischer-Random World Championship in 2019 (Wesley So beat Carlsen in the final) and 2022 (Hikaru Nakamura beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final), and as chess' recognized governing body, claims the sole right to organize world championships.
Coercion of players, misuse of power and broken promises.
FIDE President Dvorkovich, to convince me to play the Rapid & Blitz in New York, you wrote Dec 19th to my father:
«Just want to pass a message to you and Magnus that whatever happens between FIDE and Freestyle in terms...
- Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) February 3, 2025
Following the standoff between Carlsen and FIDE in the World Rapid & Blitz Championships (where the Norwegian was suspended for a breach of dress code), that was eventually smoothed out with assurances from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, things have taken a turn recently, with Carlsen and FCGT backer Jan Henric Buettner calling for Dvorkovich's resignation, claiming broken promises.
FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky even went on the Carlsen-backed platform 'Take Take Take' to explain FIDE's position, that players had already signed contracts with clauses to prevent them from taking part in rival 'world championships' -- but FIDE wasn't keen on enforcing any bans. The FCGT has eventually backed down, opting to remove the term 'World Championship / World Champion' from their materials -- but only for the next 10 months.
So, this feud is paused for the moment, but things could change later in the year.
FIDE CEO @EmilSutovsky shares their side of the story. pic.twitter.com/7Jlgqk8W88
- Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) February 4, 2025
What is Freestyle Chess?
As much as the promoters of the Freestyle Chess Grand Tour claim to be reinventing the wheel, Freestyle Chess is nothing but Fischer-Random chess, created by former world champion Bobby Fischer in 1996. It has since come to be known as Chess960, on account of its 960 possible starting positions. Thus, in contrast to classical chess, where openings can be memorised and games may follow predictable patterns, freestyle chess promotes positional play right from the start, with greater variance of what arises later.
Chess960 involves the randomisation of the back rank when starting, but in a twist from completely random positions (also called shuffle chess), Chess960 adheres to two rules. The bishops must be in opposite-coloured squares, and the king in a square between two rooks. White and black's back ranks are equal and opposite (ex. white's king on c1 would mean black's king on c8 and so on). The permutations of such rules mean that there are 960 possible starting positions in a game.
What are intricacies of Freestyle Chess?
Fischer's intent when creating Chess960 was to minimise scenarios where white started with a massive advantage in shuffle chess, while also keeping the strategies of classical chess in play, including the right to castle. However, many of the 960 starting positions in Freestyle chess result in unprotected pawns (which is minimised in classical chess), and players usually make opening moves to secure those pawns.
Chess960 usually takes place in rapid time controls, but the Freestyle Chess Grand Tour will use the format with classical time controls (at least in the knockouts).
Why does Magnus Carlsen prefer Freestyle Chess
In the five-time world champion's eyes, the ability to glance at a position and pick the best move is greater than calculating lines or relying on preparation. Classical chess favours the latter, while speed chess favours the former. However, Freestyle chess with classical time controls offers an intriguing balance and negates the need for time-consuming preparation -- a big part of why Carlsen opted out of the FIDE Chess World Championship cycle.
What about the current world champion Gukesh and other Indians?
Freestyle Chess's invitational format reserved one spot for the reigning world champion -- which means Gukesh will be taking part in the tournament. Gukesh will be the lone Indian taking part, following Viswanathan Anand's withdrawal from the tournament. Anand, taking up a wild card invite spot from the organisers, chose to withdraw following Carlsen's criticism of his position with FIDE
R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi had participated in the qualifying tournament, with Pragg defeating Vidit but eventually losing out to runner-up Javokhir Sindarov in the quarterfinals, who replaced Anand in the tournament proper.
What's the actual format of the Freestyle Grand Chess Tour?
There are ten participants consisting of:
Top 3 in 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenger: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian.
Top 3 FIDE ranked players in April 2024: Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja.
Organisers wild card invites: Vincent Keymer.
FIDE Chess World Champion: Gukesh Dommaraju.
Winner of qualifying tournament: Vladimir Fedoseev, Javokhir Sindarov (runner-up, replacing Anand).
The ten participants will face each other in a round-robin stage with rapid time controls (10 minutes + 10 second increment per move).
The top eight from the round-robin stage will then take part in a knockout bracket with classical time controls (90 minutes + 30 second increments).
Ranks 1-10 will be decided with playoffs, with Formula 1 style scoring (25 for 1st, 18 for 2nd and so on until 1 point for 10th) in each Grand Slam. There are five Grand Slams in total throughout the year (Paris, New York, New Delhi, Cape Town apart from the opener in Germany).
Round 1 of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, Weissenhaus begins at 5:30 PM IST / 1:00 PM CET on Feb.7.