Chess World Title Splinters Again: FIDE Announces Yet Another Version, The Freestyle

The landscape of elite world chess is changing fast.

This week the sport's governing body FIDE announced a new addition to the elite event calendar—the first official FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.

It marks another splintering of the world title, but also an intriguing truce in the on-going tug-of-war over a variant of the sport and, for now, its biggest star.

"Freestyle" is the new name used for the variant Chess960 or Fischer Random where the pieces on the back rank are randomised at the start of the game. The idea is to limit opening preparation.

The variant is not new, but it has grown on the elite stage with several high-profile events taking place in recent years.

Indeed, a world title in the variant already exists. A FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship was held in 2019 and 2022. GM Wesley So won the inaugural and GM Hikaru Nakamura is the current reigning champion.

However, when an event due to be held in early 2024 never happened it was thought FIDE had taken its eye off the ball in regard to the variant.

What followed next is fascinating. In late 2024, Freestyle Chess moved in to revive the concept on their own terms rebadging the variant "Freestyle."

Freestyle Chess wanted to crown a "Freestyle Chess World Champion," a phrase FIDE claimed it owned the rights to. It is, after all, the organisation that represents over 200 member federations and considers itself the guardian of the game, FIDE believes only it has the legitimacy to anoint world champions.

Freestyle Chess, officially known as Freestyle Chess Operations GmbH, is far from a federation representing players and members. It is purely commercial and believed to be financed mainly by a $12 million investment from the New York venture firm Left Lane Capital. German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner is the CEO.

However, what the new disruptor lacks authority, it makes up for with its trump card: Freestyle has the people's champion, most marketable chess player in history and world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen on board.

This time last year FIDE and Freestyle Chess, with Carlsen as a co-founder, found themselves in open war against each other.

Carlsen was fully in the thick of it too, suggesting he would never to play a FIDE event again. He went as far as declaring he was "at full war with FIDE." FIDE stood firm maintaining only it has the authority to run world championships. Legal threats were made.

Freestyle Chess then appeared to back down, putting on a five-event Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour but refraining from calling it a world championship. Carlsen, Nakamura, all the big stars took part.

In December, Carlsen finished as the overall winner of the tour, after reaching final the Freestyle Grand Slam in Cape Town where he lost to GM Levon Aronian. By this point, the relationship between Freestyle and FIDE also appeared to have changed.

The buzz about the event was difficult to determine, but Freestyle Chess hailed it a success and FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich made the pointed move to publicly congratulate Carlsen on winning and the organisers for putting on a show.

Carlsen went on to take part in the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships in Doha, where he won his 19th and 20th world titles.

Detente

It seemed the row that had been raging at the start of the year had cooled down. Why was the obvious question?

Now it has emerged FIDE and Freestyle Chess have been working together, in partnership, to deliver exactly the world championship both organisations fought over.

Writing on X, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky flagged the announcement with the words, "Burying the hatchet!"

However, this comes in the week FIDE also announced the latest details for its other big innovation for 2026: the Total Chess World Championship Tour.

A “Total Chess 2026 Pilot” event is set to feature 16 players in its first edition starting in October, with the hope that it becomes a regular part of the World Championship cycle from 2027.

Both events are huge additions to elite chess. The sport now has a confusing array of titles with the two new crowns added to the World Rapid, the World Blitz and the traditional pinnacle the classical World Chess Championship. There is also the Chess World Cup and the World Team Chess Championships and the Chess Olympiad. All have Open and Women's sections.

With the new tournament starting on February 13, players have just over a month to prepare for an event where a new version of the World Championship title is on the line. It's a big ask.

Will fans keep up with all this? Can the players?

Both FIDE and Freestyle Chess have confirmed in a joint press release that the new two-day FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship "will be a continuation of FIDE's previous events in the Fischer Random format."

It is due to be held in Weissenhaus, Germany, and will feature eight players.

Six players have qualified based on their results during the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour: GMs Carlsen, Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, and Javokhir Sindarov.

Two additional participants will be selected separately, one by FIDE and one by Freestyle Chess. Freestyle Chess has already nominated GM Hans Niemann, due to his outstanding performance in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Las Vegas.

FIDE will hold an Online Qualification Tournament as early as January 14 and 15 to determine the eighth player.

As for a women's event, that doesn't appear to have been a priority. The press release said "a Women's Exhibition Match between two of the best women" will be held in parallel in Weissenhaus.

The inaugural FIDE Women's Freestyle Chess Championship will instead be launched in late 2026.

The event will feature a $50,000 prize fund, financed from the payment made by Freestyle Chess under the current agreement with FIDE.

Dvorkovich said: "This World Championship and signed cooperation agreement bring FIDE and Freestyle Chess together within a clear and transparent sporting framework.

"It is important that elite competition in this format is governed under established international standards administered by FIDE as the sole governing body of world chess."

Jan Henric Buettner, CEO of Freestyle Chess, added: "Our aim from the outset was to build a serious competitive structure, not isolated events.

"After completing our first Grand Slam season, a World Championship in cooperation with FIDE is the logical next step: a defined title, a fixed venue, and a clear competitive peak."

The momentum behind this venture appears significant. Whether it rivals the classical World Championship, or any of the other versions of the title, only time will tell.