Magnus Carlsen, the world’s number one chess player, is launching a globe Freestyle Chess tour as the form of the game, also known as Chess960, grows in popularity, he revealed on Friday.
Norwegian Carlsen, a five-time classical chess world champion who lost his title last year, has joined up with German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner to launch a new, exclusive tour in November in chess powerhouse India.
Carlsen and Buettner announced in a joint statement that the prize money for the Indian leg of the tour will be $500,000.
The best chess player in the world, Carlsen, along with German businessman Buettner, who organized and conducted the event, extended an invitation to the best players in the world to join their recently established, invitation-only Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC). In a joint statement, Carlsen and Buettner also announced the beginning of the global Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, which will consist of five tournaments held annually across five continents.
Since its inception in 1996, chess960—a game invented by former world champion Bobby Fischer—has gained prominence thanks to an invite tournament held at the Weissenhaus Luxury Resort, the site of the 2022 G7 Foreign Minister conference.
The pieces on the back rank in Chess960/Freestyle chess are rearranged, so computer-aided moves that result in sometimes boring openings are useless.
Carlsen and seven other grandmasters that the Norwegian personally selected competed in the G.O.A.T. Challenge.
The world championships hosted by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in 2019 and 2022, as well as one this year, were played under rapid time control. In contrast, the Freestyle Chess events will be decided under regular time control, with a minimum of one hour allotted to each player.
“My ultimate objective for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam is to achieve the same level of financial success as renowned sporting events such as the Formula 1 motorsport, the PGA for golf, and the ATP for tennis. Putting the players at the center of all we do is fundamental to our strategy,” he said.
