Could Freestyle change the rules?

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 24 January 2025)

When players take part in the Northumbria Chess League, the game they play is the same one that has been played by standard rules for hundreds of years. But those rules, or at least who controls what the rules are, could now be under threat.

Freestyle Chess, a variant where the back-rank pieces on the chessboard are shuffled at the start of the game, was invented by former world champion Bobby Fischer, and is also called Fischer-Random or Chess960.

The current world No. 1, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, is partnering with a German businessman, Jan Henric Buettner, to stage the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of multimillion-euro elite tournaments. The first one runs in Weissenhaus, Germany next month. Further events will follow in Paris, New York, Delhi and Cape Town.

The Freestyle Chess Players Club has signed up Carlsen, the FIDE Classical World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi (India), Hikaru Nakamura, Lev Aronian and Fabiano Caruana (USA), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), Alireza Firouzja (France), Vladimir Fedoseev (Slovenia) and Vincent Keymer (Germany).

With an exciting format guaranteed to produce plenty of thrills and spills, the Freestyle tournaments could be onto a commercial winner, just like other sports where breakaway projects have shaken up the game.

But the international chess federation, FIDE, has taken umbrage at the Grand Slam Tour, warning that if it calls itself a “World Championship,” anyone taking part in it will be banned from taking part in the FIDE Classical, Rapid and Blitz World Championships for the next four years.

Some of the top players have hit back, with Nakamura calling on his colleagues to refuse to sign FIDE contracts, which are due to be agreed by February 3. Where this leaves the chess world remains to be seen, but the worst-case scenario could see players from the top 10 banned from conventional world championships, and possibly even rival championships emerging.

In the North East, chess players have no conflicts over Freestyle versus conventional chess, merely seeing Freestyle as a fun extra addition to the game. Gosforth has organised Freestyle events, but mainly as a light-hearted alternative to conventional tournaments. There are certainly no plans yet for Freestyle leagues.

The first Freestyle Grand Slam event will be covered live (with commentary) from February 7-14 at freestyle-chess.com, lichess.org and chess.com.

PUZZLES

Puzzle A: Aronian-Ding, Freestyle 2024. White to play.

Puzzle B: Gukesh-Keymer, Freestyle 2024. Black to play.

Puzzle C: Aronian-Keymer, Freestyle 2024. White to play.

Puzzle D: Carlsen-Aronian, Freestyle 2024. White to play.

ANSWERS:

A: 1 Qg7+! 1-0. If 1…Rxg7 2 fxg7+ Kg8 3 Bxh7+! Kxh7 (3…Kf7 4 g8Q+ Rxg8 5 Bxg8+) 4 gxf8Q.
B: 1…Be6! 0-1. If 2 Qxe6 Qxa1+, or 2 Rxa4 Bxh3 3 gxh3 Nxc5.
C: 1 Rxd6+! cxd6 (1…Rxd6 2 Rxe8+ Kxe8 3 Qxg8+) 2 Rc4+ Qc7 3 Qxc7 mate.
D: 1 Rxb4! 1-0. If 1…Bxb4 2 Qd7+ Kb6 3 Rb1, or 1…Qe8 2 Rb7+ Kc8 3 Qa6 Kd8 4 c7+ Bxc7 5 Rd1+.