Carlsen, Ding, Caruana In New $200,000 Classical Fischer-Random Event

GM Magnus Carlsen says it's a dream come true to be holding the first ever classical Fischer-Random super-tournament, which will take place at a luxury resort on Germany's Baltic coast in February and feature eight of the world's top players.

Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge will take place February 9-16 and marks Carlsen's first battle with his successor, World Champion GM Ding Liren, since the Chinese grandmaster took over the throne.

GMs Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Gukesh Dommaraju complete the field, making the super-tournament one of 2024's strongest events.

You may know the format as Chess960, Fischer Random, Chess9LX, or even Fischer Chess. The organizers have instead dubbed it Freestyle Chess (in all caps) and for the first time a Chess960 super-tournament will be played with the classical time control.

"With this format, a dream comes true for me," Carlsen says. "I have long wished for a competition where Chess960 is played at the highest level with the classical time control in a tournament."

The world number-one is clearly taking the event seriously, having skipped Tata Steel Chess for the first time since 2014, and his participation in Germany looks set to become his first major tournament in 2024. "But it's not about me," says Carlsen. "I see another challenge here: advancing the sport of chess.”

The format is clearly perfect for Carlsen, who has stated he intends to focus less on classical chess due to the role of opening preparation, and instead welcomes more Chess960, a variant where the initial starting position of the pieces on the back rank is drawn randomly in advance. That makes existing opening preparation obsolete, with the players now having to start thinking from move one.

On the first two days of the event, the participants will play a preliminary round of rapid games to determine the starting numbers for the knockout phase. From day three, they will play quarterfinals to the final in a knockout system of two-game matches at a classical time control. If tied 1-1, there will be a rapid tiebreaker at the end of the day to decide the winner. The total prize fund is $200,000 USD, with $60,000 for the winner.

Carlsen isn't the only player who is excited, as Aronian is quoted in the press release as follows: “I have been waiting for a tournament like the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge my whole career.”

I have been waiting for a tournament like the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge my whole career.

—Levon Aronian

One player whose absence stands out is that of GM Hikaru Nakamura, the current holder of the Fischer Random World Championship title, a title decided in rapid chess.

Congratulations to @GMHikaru for winning the 2022 #FischerRandom World Championship! 🏆

He played brilliantly throughout the week and won the final Armageddon tiebreak against Nepo to secure the title! 👏 pic.twitter.com/ZwhA0FyacQ

— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 30, 2022

The tournament will be held at the Weissenhaus Resort, a five-star luxury resort located one hour's drive northeast of Hamburg, on the Baltic Sea. "An ideal place to showcase the players in a novel format for worldwide broadcasting," tournament director GM Sebastian Siebrecht said.

The event is sponsored by the owner of the resort, Jan Henrik Buettner, a German entrepreneur who made his fortune developing AOL Europe in the 1990s. 

Play Chess960