Carlsen is looking forward to playing Gukesh, talks about his preparation – Firstpost

The Tour of the Grand Chelem Freestyle, which begins on February 7 (Friday) in Germany, presents the first opportunity to see the new world champion of Gukesh take the world number 1 Magnus Carlsen. The Grand Master of 18 years in India, Gukesh, won the world chess championship last year by beating Ding Liren. Carlsen had held the title of the world chess championship since 2013, but had decided not to defend it in 2022.

The Gukesh vs Carlsen match is considered a battle between the two best chess players. Carlsen said he is looking forward to his match against Gukesh and the world No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura and that he will also try to beat young people.

“I can’t wait to play the classic world champion, Gukesh. Obviously, I can’t wait to play everyone, but I had the chance to play Hikaru Nakamura here … Last year, there was a little generational battle. I will try a little louder to beat young people, “he said India chess in an interview.

What is freestyle failures?

The first stage of the Freestyle chess tour will be played from February 7 to 14 in Weissenhaus, Germany. The tournament will include some of the best big chess from around the world, including the world n ° 2 Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattarov, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Vladimir Fedoseev and Javokhir Sindarov in addition to Carlsen, Gukesh and Nakamura .

The tournament will be played in Freestyle chess format which is also known as Chess960 or Fischer Random Chess. In the format of freestyle chess, the parts of the back of the back are randomized in the starting position. The pieces during a game of freestyle chess, however, move in the same way as a normal chess match.

Freestyle failures eliminate the possibility of remembering an opening due to randomized ranks and promote creativity. However, this also poses a challenge for players to prepare because they ignore what they will face.

Carlsen said that preparing freestyle chess matches will become easier once the number of games between GMs increases.

“Most of the preparation is now based on engine games, because it is the high -level games that exist,” said Carlsen. “So I think that when we get more human classic freestyle games, it will be much easier to prepare. But you know, for the moment, we simply use the information we have. »»

Carlsen shares his preparation for the visit of the great slam freestyle chess

The Grand Chelem Freestyle tour is organized by Freestyle chess operations co -owners of Carlsen. They also organized the Freestyle Chess Chilenge in 2024. The Grand Chelem tour will include five legs with the final in December 2025.

Speaking of his preparations, Carlsen said that, unlike last year, he will enter the tournament in a more relaxed state.

“Last year, I did a lot of training. I was playing training games with David Howell and Peter (Carlsen Peter Heine Nielsen’s coach), and I worked on other openings. This year, I did much less, ”he shared.

“I felt like last year, I really thought about the first games. It was as if I had too much random knowledge and I didn’t know how to use it. So I think I managed to recalibrate a little better during the tournament. But this year, I tried to do it a little differently. I played Freestyle Friday on Chess.com and it was a good training, just to get a little practice. Otherwise, you know, I looked at some graphics on the openings, like, where the parts took place, and so on. But I guess I will also try to practice a little practice.

Carlsen has often said that he was not interested in conventional failures, but believes that freestyle failures under conventional time checks will make sport more attractive for young people. He hopes that the Grand Chelem Freestyle Chess tour will be a huge success.