Magnus Carlsen, the world player No. 1, and the Fide have been in a failed tournament in conflict on freestyle for some time now. Here is everything you need to know about the controversy and what the failures of Freestyle is.
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The world chess player n ° 1, Magnus Carlsen, and the International Federation of Chess (Fide) have been in Loggerheads for some time now, during the controversial tournament of the Grand Chelem of the Freestyle chess, of which Carlsen is co- founder. In March 2024, Carlsen, with the German entrepreneur, Jan Henric Buettner, founded the Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC) and invited the best players to become members.
It is at the same time that Carlsen and Buettner announced the launch of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is a series of tournaments on each continent, and during 2025, five tournaments will take place. The world champion of Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Viswanathan Anand, Praggnanandhaa, Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen are all part of the FCPC.
What is the controversy between Fide and Magnus Carlsen?
The Fide had recently added the visit of the Grand Slam of Freestyle chess to their official calendar, but said that it had only been done as a gesture of “good will”. However, at the same time, FCPC’s attempts to qualify the Grand Slam as a world championship took a hit after the Fide said that the free chess body could not accommodate an alternative “world championship”.
This led to the Fide accusing Carlsen of creating “divisions in the world of chess”. “FCPC’s attempts to present their project as a world championship are in contradiction with the well -established status of Fide and its authority on world championship titles in all relevant variations in failures – including chess960 / freestyle failures , as indicated in the Fide Handbook Fide manual, “said a state of Fide last week.
The Fide also warned of legal action if the FCPC tries to use the name of the world championship in its tournaments. “We are open to dialogue and we are impatient to achieve a mutually acceptable agreement, provided that the role of governance and its well -established authority of Fide on the world championships are respected by potential partners,” said the body Director of Sport.
“If such an agreement is not concluded, Fide demands that the Freestyle series does not bear the status of” world championship “. Fide will not hesitate to use all legal means against those who violate its rights-whether initiators, organizers and / or investors of the project, “he added.
The Fide also urged all the players who qualified for the 2025-26 world championship cycle to sign a contract which stipulates that they will not participate in the non-non-non-world championships.
“As the cycle of the 2025-2026 world championship is underway, all qualified players should sign an additional contract, which will include a clause indicating that participation in alternative world chess championships in any variation of failures not approved by FIDE (with the exception of the Freestyle Tour in 2025) would lead to their withdrawal from the two consecutive faithful world championship, “added the board of directors.
Besides Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, world n ° 3, also criticized the Fide. After the CEO of Fide, Emil Sutovsky, had shot in Nakamura concerning the controversy of the failures of the freestyle, said the American GM, saying that he had “no equity in the failures of the freestyle”.
“I am not I who creates this (the tour of the Grand Chelem Freestyle). So I find it really weird that I am the one he chooses to attack. I don’t start this. This is led by Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner. It is a personal insult, “he said. “I don’t know why he should try to attack me. I can also make personal attacks but I choose not to do it. I have no equity in freestyle failures.
“I have no contract with them that I will play each tournament or anything in this direction. So it’s a bit weird to try to do this in one way or another on me. It’s funny that I apparently be the villain, ”added Nakamura.
What is freestyle failures?
Freestyle failures are the most recent name of the Fischer Random (named after the legendary Bobby Fischer) and Chess960 (named after the 960 possible starting positions). Freestyle Chess uses a unique way to play the game. In the format of freestyle chess, all the pieces move as usual, but there are changes to other aspects.
The eight pawns at the front are placed as usual, but it is the pieces behind the pawns that are randomized. There are, however, some restrictions on this game. The first is that the king must be placed between two laps and that the bishops must be placed on opposite colored squares.
There are no such restrictions for the Queen and the Knights. Because the starting positions are randomized, there is no opening theory in freestyle failures.
