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Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour

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Chess960 series of tournaments
Freestyle Chess World Championship
2025
Tournament information
SportChess960
DatesFebruary 7–December 12, 2025
Host(s)Wangels, Germany
Paris, France
New York City, United States
Delhi, India
Cape Town, South Africa
← 2024

The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is a series of Chess960 tournaments in 2025 organized by Freestyle Chess Operations. It will consist of five "Grand Slam" tournaments following the format of the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, held in 2024. Players will score points based on placement in each event. The player with the highest score at the end of the year will become the Freestyle Chess World Champion.

The tour was co-founded by five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and German investor Jan Henric Buettner. Carlsen has been an advocate for Chess960 as an alternative to classical chess that eliminates opening preparation and theory. In July 2024, Left Lane Capital invested $12 million in the venture.

Format

Each tournament will have ten participants. The top eight finishers in the rapid round-robin stage advance to the knockout stage. The time control for the round-robin stage is 10 minutes with an increment of 10 seconds per move. No draw offers are allowed until move 40. The ninth and tenth-place finishers are required to perform commentary for the knockout stage. Refusal to do so results in a 50% reduction of their prize money. Ninth place is determined in a playoff.

The players are seeded 1-8 for the single-elimination knockout stage based on their performance in the round-robin stage. Each match is a best of two games. The time control is 90 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds per move. No draw offers are allowed until after move 40. The higher-seeded player starts the match with black in the first game. In the event of a tie, the tiebreak is two 10+10 rapid games followed by two 5+2 blitz games if the tie persists, and then one armageddon game with bidding. Third, fifth and seventh places are determined in playoffs.

The points and prize money will be awarded as follows:

Place Grand Slam Points Prize money
1st 25 $200,000
2nd 18 $140,000
3rd 15 $100,000
4th 12 $60,000
5th 10 $50,000
6th 8 $40,000
7th 6 $30,000
8th 4 $20,000
9th 2 $12,500
10th 1 $7,500

Schedule

Dates Host city Winner Runner-up Third place
February 7–14 Germany Wangels
April 8–15 France Paris
July 17–24 United States New York City
September 17–24 India New Delhi
December 5–12 South Africa Cape Town

Participants

Germany (1st Leg)

The qualifiers to the first leg were:

Qualification method Player Age Rating World
ranking
(January 2025)
The top three finishers in the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge Norway Magnus Carlsen 34 2831 1
United States Fabiano Caruana 32 2803 2
United States Levon Aronian 42 2747 11
The three highest rated players in the April 2024 FIDE rankings United States Hikaru Nakamura 37 2802 3
Uzbekistan Nodirbek Abdusattorov 20 2768 6
France Alireza Firouzja 21 2763 7
Organizer's wild cards India Viswanathan Anand 55 2750 10
Germany Vincent Keymer 20 2733 20
Winner of the World Chess Championship 2024 India Gukesh Dommaraju 18 2777 5
Winner of the online play-in Slovenia Vladimir Fedoseev 29 2717 26

Play-In

Open qualifiers were held on January 4 and 5, open to eligible non-titled players. The top three players from each advanced to the Swiss stage held on January 6, open to all titled players. 248 players participated in the Swiss. The top four players, Vladimir Fedoseev, Denis Lazavik, Javokhir Sindarov and Olexandr Bortnyk advanced to the 16-player knockout stage, held on January 8 and 9, joining 12 invited players. Fedoseev beat Sindarov in the final in an armageddon game, after a 2-2 tie, and qualified for the Grand Slam.

 Round of 16 (January 7)Quarterfinals (January 7)Semifinals (January 8)Final (January 8)
                       
  
 
 Ukraine Oleksandr Bortnyk½
  
 FIDE Ian Nepomniachtchi1½
 FIDE Ian Nepomniachtchi2½
  
 United States Hans Niemann1½
 France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave½
  
 United States Hans Niemann1½
 FIDE Ian Nepomniachtchi1½
  
 Slovenia Vladimir Fedoseev2½
 Slovenia Vladimir Fedoseev2
  
 United States Leinier Domínguez0
 Slovenia Vladimir Fedoseev2
  
 Poland Jan-Krzysztof Duda0
 Iran Parham Maghsoodloo1
  
 Poland Jan-Krzysztof Duda3
 Slovenia Vladimir Fedoseev3
  
 Uzbekistan Javokhir Sindarov2
 Uzbekistan Javokhir Sindarov1½
  
 China Wei Yi½
 Uzbekistan Javokhir Sindarov2
  
 India R Praggnanandhaa0
 India Vidit Gujrathi1
  
 India R Praggnanandhaa3
 Uzbekistan Javokhir Sindarov1½
  
 China Yu Yangyi½
 FIDE Denis Lazavik3
  
 United States Wesley So2
 FIDE Denis Lazavik0
  
 China Yu Yangyi2
 China Yu Yangyi1½
 
 Vietnam Lê Quang Liêm½
 

Dispute with FIDE

On December 21, 2024, the Freestyle Chess Players Club issued a press release on Twitter stating an agreement on a "friendly co-existence" with FIDE, and ongoing discussions "regarding the mutual recognition of future World Championship titles". FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich replied stating that the press release "includes significant inaccuracies that mispresent the situation" and that FIDE will issue a further statement on the matter. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik questioned the recognition of "a private event (with all respect) as official WC [sic]", and the involvement of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Chess.com, and exclusion of World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, in the agreement.

On December 27, in an interview with Levy Rozman after withdrawing from the World Rapid Championship over a dress code dispute, Carlsen accused FIDE of "going after players to get them not to sign with Freestyle" and "threatening them that they wouldn't be able to play the World Championship Cycle if they played in Freestyle". Carlsen's claims were supported by Nakamura.

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky denied the claims on Twitter, stating "the claim that FIDE threatened players who were willing to participate in Freestyle Chess Tour is a lie" and "the only thing we insisted on - no Series or Tour can be called World Championship unless FIDE approves it. FIDE is the governing body of chess, and any World Championship should either be conducted or approved by FIDE".

References

  1. ^ "Freestyle Chess World Championship Regulations" (PDF).
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  3. Soufi, Daniel (2025-01-04). "El mecenas que se ha aliado con Magnus Carlsen para cambiar la historia del ajedrez". Cinco Días (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  4. Barden, Leonard (2024-03-22). "Richest chess tour announced for 2025 as freestyle wins global appeal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  5. Robinson, Joshua; Beaton, Andrew (2024-11-20). "The Greatest Chess Player of All Time Is Bored With Chess". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2024-11-20. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  6. Lozo, ByDave. "Chess is about to get a lot more unpredictable". Morning Brew. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  7. Barden, Leonard (2024-03-18). "Chess: Carlsen and Buettner announce Freestyle Chess Tour for top players". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  8. "Chess legend Magnus Carlsen, investor Jan Henric Buettner, VC Left Lane Capital, launch new company to revolutionize professional chess" (Press release). PR Newswire. 2024-07-25. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  9. Agini, Samuel (2024-12-25). "Chess champion Magnus Carlsen leads gambit to capture ancient game". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  10. Doggers, Peter (2024-07-25). "$12 million Raised For 'Revolutionary' Freestyle Series Of Tournaments". Chess.com. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  11. McGourty, Colin (2025-01-06). "Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam: Fedoseev, Lazavik, Sindarov, Bortnyk Reach Knockout". Chess.com. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  12. Colodro, Carlos Alberto (2025-01-09). "Weissenhaus Play-In: Fedoseev beats Nepomniachtchi and Sindarov, gets spot in Grand Slam". ChessBase. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  13. L'immortale (2024-12-22). "Freestyle Chess and FIDE discuss mutual recognition of future World Championship titles". Chess Topics. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  14. Levin (AnthonyLevin), Anthony (2025-01-02). "FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships—13 Things We Learned". Chess.com. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  15. "Kramnik questions Gukesh's absence from agreement between FIDE and Carlsen-backed elite private tour". Firstpost. 2024-12-28. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  16. Ahmed, Shahid (2024-12-28). "Magnus Carlsen withdraws from World Rapid 2024". ChessBase India. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  17. "'I'm out, f*** you': Magnus Carlsen disqualified from World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2024 for wearing jeans". The Indian Express. 2024-12-28. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  18. Ninan, Susan (2025-01-07). "Whose game is it anyway? The Carlsen vs Fide battle". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  19. Paul, Koushik (2024-12-29). "Magnus Carlsen vs FIDE chess controversy: Looking beyond jeans incident; is it a PR battle?". mint. Archived from the original on 2025-01-01. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  20. Kamath, Amit (2025-01-04). "Random piece positions, 960 possible starts: What is freestyle chess, which led to Magnus Carlsen clashing with FIDE?". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  21. "'One may ask Gukesh...': FIDE responds to Magnus Carlsen's claim of threatening players against joining Freestyle Chess". Firstpost. 2024-12-29. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
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