Freestyle Chess, which debuted last month, has confirmed plans to expand to five continents next year and recruit the top 25 elite grandmasters to join a new club of competitors. This variant, also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960, has a back row of pieces on either side of a random square, with the black pieces placed equally and opposite the white pieces.
German promoter Jan Buettner, who made his fortune from AOL Europe by leading the Freestyle chess competition alongside world number one Magnus Carlsen, has launched Freestyle International Prize money for the Chess Grand Slam Tour, in which five events are expected to rise, will gradually reach $1 million.
By comparison, the existing Chess Grand Tour starts in St. Louis and culminates in the Sinquefield Cup, with a total prize pool of $1.5 million, while the Champions Tour has four online tournaments followed by a Chess tour. Ultimately, there was $1.7 million.
It’s no surprise that the top masters are enthusiastic. Freestyle offers a great bonus that allows you to escape the drudgery of spending hours preparing openings with the help of a Stockfish computer before classic games, and there is a good chance that mutual studies will end in a draw. This is very different at the level of an average player or even an average master, where you can surprise your opponent with a well-prepared opening bomb, but even that doesn’t guarantee ultimate success.
If Freestyle is to gain traction, Bittner will have to prove his stated ambition to “make it as commercially successful as iconic sporting events such as the tennis ATP, golf PGA and motorsport F1”. The next Grand Slam will be held in India in November with a prize of $500,000 and looks certain to be a success as Indian chess fans will want to see their teenage hero take on Carlsen. A return to northern Germany in February 2025 with $750,000 should also go well, but subsequent events, the Tour’s entry into new territories in South America and South Africa with a full $1 million, may face logistical issues .
If all goes according to plan, the global chess economy will at best be significantly boosted, while the elite grandmaster base point, currently at 2700 points, will rise to 2725 points to match the new pot of gold.
Cambridge Economics graduate Matthew Wadsworth, 23, finished joint second in the massive Reykjavik Open against 400 players on Thursday with a score of 7/9. Finished sixth in the tiebreak. Romania’s top seed Bogdan-Daniel Deak won the first prize with a score of 7.5/9.
Wadsworth, who had lost only once, produced a brilliant attack in the ninth and final round to checkmate fourth seed Jules Moussard of France, whose white piece The King was stuck in the middle of a 41-hand Italian match.
Wadsworth’s graded performance fell just shy of his second general manager standard, but he will get that chance again on Friday, one of two important games starting this weekend with England’s young talent A chance to win an international title. Both events are supported by a £500,000 Elite Chess grant announced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport last year.
The 4NCL Spring GM round robin is a 10-player event where IM Marcus Harvey, 28, Wadsworth, 23, and Shreyas Royal, 15, all have a chance to earn a GM standard of 6.5/9. The competition kicks off at 3pm on Saturday and will feature nine rounds over five days.
The 8th Menchik Monument commemorates the first female world champion, who was killed by a V1 rocket in 1944. The 10-player event begins on Friday (first round at 10am, second round at 3pm) and runs until Tuesday, with the standards for the women’s championship at stake.
9 year old Bodhana Sivanandan will be competing after another impressive result in Reykjavik where she went 5.5/9 with a TPR of 2069 and lost only GM and IM (see puzzle below).Both matches next week will be live on lichess
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In the £400,000 America’s Cup competition, which includes the open and women’s events, Levon Aronian defeated Wesley So in the open final, while 14-year-old Alice Lee beat defending champion Irina Krush in the women’s final (Irina Krush). Favorite World number two Fabiano Caruana has lost to Aronian and Su, sparking questions about his form ahead of next month’s Candidates event in Toronto Worry.
3912: 1…Re5! 2 Qxc3 Qxh2+! 3 Kxh2 Rh5+ 4 Kg1 Rh1 chaperone. If 2 g4 Qxg4+! 3 Nxg4 Re1 paired or 3 Kf1 Qh3+ paired.
3912A: 1RC1! g4 2 Rc2! dxc2 3 Bc1! c3 4 RF4! Kxf4 5 d4 mate.
3912B: 1 Nd5+! Qxd5/Kb5 2 Qa4 mate.
