Hello everyone.
FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2026 is here. From 13th February to 15th February 8 player will compete in Weissenhaus Germany for the title of world champion in freestyle chess or Fisher random or Chess960.
FIDE and Freestyle Chess came together are we have first FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Eight players will fight for the crown. All 8 players are from the top 20 in the live rankings at the moment.
This is very exciting to watch as Freestyle chess is more unpredictable and the games bring surprise moves and results.
Today is first day of the comeptition.
Here are players by their current ranking.
Fabiano Caruana
Vincent Keymer
Arjun Erigaisi
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Levon Aronian
Javokhir Sindarov
Hans Niemann
Take on all players as Round-Robin is currently being played on.
Worth noting is that Hikaru Nakamura declined invitation to participate in this years FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship as he is preparing for Candidates Tournament.
It would be more interesting with him for sure.
Of course Magnus Carlsen is one of main favorites in any tournament he plays. Fabiano Caruana always on podium and maybe this is his time to take it all. Levon Aronian with his experince is there and win against Magnus in South Africa Freestyle chess tournament. Vincent Keymer at home and winner of 2025 edition. Hans Niemann is always ready to take Freestyle chess world title. Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov are in good form and they can go all the way as well. Arjun Erigaisi number 5 player in the world until recently is not a player to be taken easy and can get that title.
Strong group of 8 players and every matchup should offer good moves and good chess.
First day it is Round-Robin with 7 round where everyone will play against each other. Time control for round robin is 10 minutes and 5 seconds increment per move. After all seven rounds first 4 will go to the final knock out stage.
Best of four games. Time control is 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment.
If it is equal after 4 games Armagedon is played.
First player after round robin is choosing his opponent between 3rd and 4th player. Second place will play with the remaining player.
Last 4 player in standings will play for placement from 5th to 8th place as well.
Tomorrow there are Semifinals and on Sunday the Finals of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Mangus Carlsen secured first place after 7 rounds. Round 7 was very tense as several players could get into top four or be tied on same points and possible playoffs to be played to decide who will advance.
At the end Magnus got first place. Vincent Keymer second, Fabiano Caruana third and Nodirbek Abdusattorow fourth with three of them having same numbe of points. They will continue to the semifinals tomorrow. Rest of the players will play for the placement from 5th to 8th place.
In game between Levon Aronian and Javokhir Sindarov both sides had their oportunites but in the end Levon flagged. He run out of time while games was being equal. Not the way you want to start the tournament. Sometimes you forget the clock or it seems that there is still more time.
This was position in which Levon lost on time.
Another one move blunder in game from round 2.
It was game between Magnus Carlsen and Javokhir Sindarov.
Here Sindarov pushed pawn to d4 which was huge blunder.
Can you notice why?
Magnus spotted that (seems like it took him only 1 second to move) and promoted his pawn to Queen.
Can you see it now?
In this position Javokhir Sindarov resigned.
You cant take Queen since Rook takes b7 is checkmate. You lose your rook if you try to stop the checkmate.
Next game between Hans Niemann and Javokhir Sindarov was one more thrilling match. Another Sindarov game.
Sindarov was better for most of the game but Hans managed to come back into the game and he had winning move on the spot.
Here Sindarov pawn push was blunder as it allowed Hans to attack the King.
Check with Rook by Hans forced bishop to defend the position.
Here Hans had winning move.
What do you think about the move?
It was King to e6. King would get closer to the pawns and force Sindarov to make any move. Now after the trades on the b6 whites bishop gets in with the check and white is winning.
Hans went for a immediate trade without King move which lead to King reaching to e3 and agreeing to the draw.
Also if Hans did not trade the Rooks he had big advantage.
There was not that much time as both players had more or less about 10 seconds so there was no time for calculation.
One more exciting game as it was last game to end and other players were watching it.
Good games and first part of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Weekend of Freestyle Chess and new Freestyle chess champion to be decided.
Now it is time to go to our Hivechess Fun Freestyle Tournament. It just started minutes ago.
Tournament link
https://lichess.org/tournament/O56c8It6
