“Freestyle chess” is the new name for the variant in which the pieces in the back row are placed randomly to make the game a test of skill and imagination rather than a remembrance of book openings. It was called Fischer Random after its inventor, later called Chess 960 or Chess 9LX because of the number of possible starting positions.
Elite grandmasters liked it, and a $200,000 event was held this week at the Weissenhaus resort on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. Half of the eight competitors, including world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and world champion Ding Liren, were over 30 and the other four were under 21.
The fast part, where the classic knockout matches will be determined, was a complete disaster for Ding, who had health problems and lost seven matches in a row. Levon Aronian defeated him in 18 moves with a queen sacrifice.
Carlsen had prepared alongside Britain’s Olympic gold medalist David Howell at a training camp in Spain but had a slow start despite completing 19 moves.
The event then moved to the knockout rounds; Here Carlsen lost his first match to Alireza Firouzja and recovered to win 3-1, Ding’s dire form continued. The under-21 team could only produce one semi-finalist; The pairings were Nodirbek Abdusattorov v Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana v Aronian, with another cameo featured in this week’s puzzle, deciding the quarter final.
Carlsen gradually overtook Caruana after three hours of play on Friday, converting two extra pawns after 44 moves of rook to win the tournament and the $60,000 first prize. Aronian, the oldest competitor at 41, defeated Abdusattorov to place third, while Ding finished last of the eight.
Sponsor Jan Buettner said the event will return to Germany in February 2025, while a Freestyle Tour may also be held with events in the US in May, India in August and Cape Town, South Africa in November.
Will chess fans be convinced? Judge for yourself by watching the Carlsen – Caruana final on Friday. The second game starts at noon GMT and lasts 3-5 hours, after which a 1-1 score leads to a quick, blitz and Armageddon tiebreak.
The second Cambridge international begins next Monday and with it comes the opportunity for eight-time British champion Michael Adams to continue a remarkable run.
The 52-year-old Cornishman won the inaugural Cambridge race in February 2023, followed by the British Championships in May, the British Championships in July, the World Senior Team gold medal in September, the Individual World Senior 50+ race in November and then London Classic in December.
Six major tournaments, six first prizes, 54 matches, 34 wins, 20 draws, no defeats. Bobby Fischer and Carlsen famously had long unbeaten runs in their 20s, but doing it in your 50s is something else entirely. The run was achieved with Adams’ classic, orthodox style, as well as knowing when to push for the win and when to save energy. Cambridge 2024 will be a new challenge as entry is stronger than last year with over 2,500 GMs in the field.
Cambridge will also be important to the foursome of rising British talent. At 15, Shreyas Royal needs the third and final norm as well as some rating points to become England’s youngest ever GM, but he still needs to earn it. The 4NCL league, where he plays in the top tier for Wood Green Youth, could also be an opportunity, but he still has work to do at 3.5/6.
13-year-old Frederick Waldhausen Gordon already has an IM result and could soon become Scotland’s No.1. He is in good form and won a good match against GM John Emms in the 4NCL last weekend.
It was a well-analyzed Semi-Tarrasch in which Gordon’s 17 Qd3 innovated on the regular 17 Qf4 and, after a few mistakes, won thematically by combining the advance of the d-pawn with threats to the black king.
Relating to: Chess: Carlsen secures another Champions Tour title with win over Firouzja
Supratit Banerjee, who has just transferred to England from Scotland, is based near Coulsdon in Surrey. The nine-year-old earned 137 rating points with promising results at Hastings and 4NCL events last month, where he drew with strong IM Ameet Ghasi to become the world No.1 in his age group.
Bodhana Sivanandan broke historic records with her dazzling performance at the European Women’s Blitz in Monaco last month. The eight-year-old’s results in the slower classic games are less dramatic, but he had a good win with 41 Nxe6 against over 2000 opponents in the 4NCL last weekend! leading to a crushing attack.
Chess in Schools and Communities, which has introduced chess to tens of thousands of students as well as organizing the London Classic and working in prisons, has published a new report on its activities. A fascinating read.
Fide is celebrating its centenary this year. Commemorations kicked off this week with a global torch relay launched by Vishy Anand, Judit Polgar and others from the 2022 Olympics in India to the 2024 Olympics in Budapest.
3907: 1 Rxd6+! and Black resigned. If cxd6 2 Bb6+ Kc8 3 Rc4+ and matches. If Rxd6 2 Rxe8+ Kxe8 3 Qxg8+ and 4 Qxb8 wins.