Delhi named as one of the five cities to host Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour

Delhi has been confirmed as one of the host cities for the inaugural edition of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, which is scheduled to start on February 7, 2025, in Weissenhaus, Germany. On Wednesday, November 20, the upcoming tournament was officially announced in Singapore.

Back in 1996, former world champion Bobby Fischer invented Freestyle Chess, which is also known as Chess960. Carlsen, who partnered with Jan Henrich Buettner, a German entrepreneur, to launch the tour, sounded optimistic about the future of freestyle chess.

“I am very excited about the future of freestyle. The idea itself of sitting down at the chessboard and thinking for a long time does not bore me — that is not the reason why I am not into standard and classical chess so much. It is more about the preparation and the difficulty of actually getting inside the game,” Carlsen said after winning the rapid section of the Tata Steel Chess India.

"But when you play freestyle, you are guaranteed that because there is no opening theory. So, we have got a lot of tournaments coming up next year. I am playing Fabiano Caruana in Singapore as an exhibition match, so hopefully, that will be fun,” Carlsen added.

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More about Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour

The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will be held across five countries, namely India, France, South Africa, Germany, and the United States of America (USA).

Prize money, ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000 is expected for the Delhi leg. Carlsen and Caruana are all set to play an exhibition match in Singapore for the promotion of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025.

The freestyle chess tournaments will take place in the standard time control rather than the rapid time control. The freestyle format has become more popular, especially after an invitational event took place at the Weissenhaus Luxury Resort in 2024.

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