It's been in the news and now it's here; the Freestyle Chess
Grand Slam Tour kicks off in Weissenhaus, Germany tomorrow... I
don't know if anyone is interested in these events, or the
"Freestyle Chess" format (aka Fischer random/chess960) but after
all the fuss we might as well throw it in to the mix here.

This new five-event series, features the elite chess players
and a prize fund of $660,000. With both the current world #1
ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen and FIDE World Champion
Gukesh Dommaraju competing.

The first leg of the tour in Germany features this line-up:

Magnus Carlsen (Norway: Rating 2831. World rank 1)
Fabiano Caruana (USA: Rating 2803. World rank 2)
Hikaru Nakamura (USA: Rating 2802. World rank 3)
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan: Rating 2768. World rank 6)
Gukesh Dommaraju (India: Rating 2777. World rank 5)
Alireza Firouzja (France: Rating 2763. World rank 7)
Levon Aronian (USA: Rating 2747. World rank 11)
Vincent Keymer (Germany: Rating 2733. World rank 20)
Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia: Rating 2717. World rank 26)
Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan: Rating 2692. World rank 37)

TOURNAMENT FORMAT:

The event will be structured into two distinct stages.

STAGE 1: Round-robin (rapid time control)

Time control: 10 minutes + 10-second increments per move.
Format: Single round-robin (each player faces all others once).
Elimination: The top 8 players advance to the knockout stage.
Placement match: The players ranked 9th and 10th will play a
playoff to determine the final 9th place ranking.


Schedule:

Friday: 5 rounds played.
Saturday: 4 rounds played.


STAGE 2: Knockout (classical time control)

Time control: 90 minutes + 30-second increments per move.
Format: Single-elimination bracket.

Schedule:

Quarter-finals: Sunday and Monday (one classical game per day).
Semi-finals: Tuesday and Wednesday (one classical game per day).
Finals: Thursday and Friday (one classical game per day).
Tie-break system in the knockout stage

If a match ends in a tie, the winner will be determined through
a play-off:

Two rapid games (10+10 time control).
If still tied, two blitz games (5+2 time control).
If still tied, a bidding Armageddon game:
Base time: 5 minutes.
Players bid for the amount of time they are willing to play with
as Black (who has draw odds).


Beyond competing for the tournament title and a share of the
$660,000 prize fund, players will also accumulate Grand Slam
points, which will determine rankings over the course of the
series. Points are distributed following the same system used in
Formula 1 races:

1st, 25 points
2nd, 18 points
3rd, 15 points
4th, 12 points
5th, 10 points
6th, 8 points
7th, 6 points
8th, 4 points
9th, 2 points
10th 1 point

The tour will continue with its second leg scheduled
to take place in Paris, France, from April 8th to 15th

Oh, and they are not using the term "World Championship" anymore
so it's just called the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour
Championship.

So now we are all up to date on this new chess
competition... Let's go!


https://www.freestyle-chess.com/

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If anyone is still awake - GMs Vincent Keymer and Fabiano Caruana make
it through to the freestyle chess final. A tournament that has seem much
hype but very little brilliance.

--
Vive Les Nordiques!

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On Thu, 13 Feb 2025, Silver Skull wrote:

If anyone is still awake - GMs Vincent Keymer and Fabiano Caruana make
it through to the freestyle chess final. A tournament that has seem much
hype but very little brilliance.

Why is that? Because of the new format? Or because the stakes are too
small to care?

I watched one commented game at gotham chess, and didn't find it that revolutionary. I do find it refreshing that Magnus did not win. ;)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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D wrote:

On Thu, 13 Feb 2025, Silver Skull wrote:

If anyone is still awake - GMs Vincent Keymer and Fabiano
Caruana make it through to the freestyle chess final. A
tournament that has seem much hype but very little
brilliance.

Why is that? Because of the new format? Or because the stakes
are too small to care?

I watched one commented game at gotham chess, and didn't find
it that revolutionary. I do find it refreshing that Magnus did
not win. ;)

Chess was never really created to be an exciting spectator
sport. It will never live up to any major hype, it's just chess.
If you are going to try and promote chess to the masses, then
proper chess with the shorter time-controls is the way to go,
IMO.

Magnus not winning this tournament will make a change, but even
better, I see they've invited Hans Niemann to the next leg of
the Freestyle Chess Tour in Paris... so think of all the pant
wetting the over-excitable chess.com commentators are going to
have with that one!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Fri, 14 Feb 2025, Blueshirt wrote:

D wrote:

On Thu, 13 Feb 2025, Silver Skull wrote:

If anyone is still awake - GMs Vincent Keymer and Fabiano
Caruana make it through to the freestyle chess final. A
tournament that has seem much hype but very little
brilliance.

Why is that? Because of the new format? Or because the stakes
are too small to care?

I watched one commented game at gotham chess, and didn't find
it that revolutionary. I do find it refreshing that Magnus did
not win. ;)

Chess was never really created to be an exciting spectator
sport. It will never live up to any major hype, it's just chess.
If you are going to try and promote chess to the masses, then
proper chess with the shorter time-controls is the way to go,
IMO.

This is the truth! I would like to have fixed time limits. 30 minutes or a fixed
60 minute limit would be great! Not the tedious multi-hour games.

Magnus not winning this tournament will make a change, but even
better, I see they've invited Hans Niemann to the next leg of
the Freestyle Chess Tour in Paris... so think of all the pant
wetting the over-excitable chess.com commentators are going to
have with that one!

This is the truth! I wonder what new cheating scandal they will fabricate? ;)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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D wrote:

On Fri, 14 Feb 2025, Blueshirt wrote:

Magnus not winning this tournament will make a change, but
even better, I see they've invited Hans Niemann to the next
leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour in Paris... so think of all
the pant wetting the over-excitable chess.com commentators
are going to have with that one!

This is the truth! I wonder what new cheating scandal they
will fabricate? ;)

Modern chess seems to be all about the personalities now, above
the game itself at times... especially on sites like chess.com
with their bunch of affiliated streamers, who are all invited
along to these events to commentate/interview/stream... so of
course they needed to throw the "bad guy" of chess in to the
mix. Chess is a business and villains are good for business!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Sat, 15 Feb 2025, Blueshirt wrote:

D wrote:

On Fri, 14 Feb 2025, Blueshirt wrote:

Magnus not winning this tournament will make a change, but
even better, I see they've invited Hans Niemann to the next
leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour in Paris... so think of all
the pant wetting the over-excitable chess.com commentators
are going to have with that one!

This is the truth! I wonder what new cheating scandal they
will fabricate? ;)

Modern chess seems to be all about the personalities now, above
the game itself at times... especially on sites like chess.com
with their bunch of affiliated streamers, who are all invited
along to these events to commentate/interview/stream... so of
course they needed to throw the "bad guy" of chess in to the
mix. Chess is a business and villains are good for business!

This is the truth! But isn't this true of most sports nowadays? Just look
at boxing... major character charades there.

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