The 12 members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC) decided not to use the term world champion for the winner of the Freestyle Chess Tour. The winner will be called “Freestyle chess champion”. They also decided to train a new independent players’ association to protect their rights.
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The 12 members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC) decided to form an independent players’ association to protect their rights after an intense battle with the International Chess Federation, Fide, was announced on Monday. Freestyle chess operations also announced that the winner of the freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 will be crowned like the “Freestyle chess champion” and not “world champion of freestyle failure”.
The use of the term “world champion” had become the stumbling block for freestyle chess operations, the organizers of the Grand Colem, because Fide had constantly said that they had the right to organize “world championships Like the director of sport.
Fide had threatened legal actions against freestyle chess operations if the winner of the Grand Slam tour was described as world champion. The Global Federation of Chess also asked the Grand Colem players to sign an exemption on February 4 to remain eligible for the cycle of the world chess championship. However, the state of the signing of a derogation was deleted after the Freestyle Tour agreed to drop the word world champion.
The freestyle tour decides against the use of the world champion
Freestyle chess operations announced on Monday through a press release that the 12 members of the players ‘players’ players club unanimously decided to temporarily avoid “world”. He added that the objective is to counter Fide’s property claims on such a word.
“It has never been our intention, because we have always called our events” Chébrure de Chèvre “or” Grand Chelem “, the co-founder of the Freestyle chess Jan Henric Buettner in the press release. “It is important to note that this decision was taken by the players, not by freestyle – and certainly not by Fide.”
According to a recent interview with the CEO of Fide Emil Sutovsky given to Hindustan timeThe world champion of Gukesh has already signed the renunciation of the world body. Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian recently confirmed that they had not signed any derogation while Hikaru Nakamura declared in the past that he would sign nothing. The world n ° 1 and co-founder of the Freestyle Tour, Magnus Carlsen, already said that he was not interested in playing in future fided events.
The press release added that players and organizers will discuss the use of the world champion for the 2026 tour at the end of the current season.
The players of the Freestyle tour decide to form an independent association
Another major announcement made by the Freestyle Chess Players Club, which includes players with an Elo note of more than 2725, was that, following direct conflicts with Fide, they decided to form an independent association for the best players in ‘chess. This association will have a “qualified legal team”.
Mentioning Fide’s pressure on players to sign an exemption, Buettner said that the tactics of the world chess organization were “scandalous” and that the FCPC was ready to take all the necessary measures to protect its rights.
“These repeated harassments are scandalous,” said Buettner. “We strongly oppose the coercive tactics of Fide, who put pressure on players to give up their right to choose the events to play.”
“We were ready to take all the necessary measures to defend the freedom of the players,” added Buettner.
Fide has not yet reacted to the FCPC Declaration.
