Chess titan Magnus Carlsen has decided to convert the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge into a five-continent tour called the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, and has picked India as its first stop. The event will be held in India in November 2024 with a prize money of $500,000 (around INR 4 crore), Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner have jointly announced. (More Sports News)
“Carlsen, the world’s greatest chess player, and the German entrepreneur Buettner, who initiated and hosted the event, have invited the world’s top chess players to become members of their newly formed, exclusive Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC). At the same time, Carlsen and Buettner confirmed the launch of a worldwide Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of five tournaments per year on five continents,” Carlsen and Buettner's joint statement read.
All players with a current ELO rating of more than 2725 and having a "significant current international activity level" are eligible for membership of the new Freestyle Chess Players Club . “We are excited that all 25 invited eligible players have responded positively and joined the FCPC”, said Buettner.
Indian Grand Masters Arjun Erigaisi and Viswanathan Anand are among those who have joined, besides the world’s top-ranked players behind Carlsen - Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abusattorov, Ding Liren, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wei Yi.
Freestyle Chess is the new name given to 'Chess960', a format in which the pieces on the first and eighth rank are shuffled randomly (with some constraints). The number 960 comes from the total possible positions for how the game can start.
While the city that will host the India leg of the tour is yet to be announced, a tentative schedule of the Freestyle Chess tournaments has been unveiled as follows.
November 10-17, 2024: India
Summer 2025: New York, USA
Fall 2025: Cartagena, Colombia
Winter 2025: Cape Town, South Africa
2026: Australia
The development follows the success of the first-ever edition of the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, an idea conceived by Carlsen. The former world champion had claimed the title in the opening edition, which was held at a swanky resort in northern Germany in February 2024.
