Freestyle Chess plans 2025 global Tour for Carlsen and the world’s top players

The world No 1’s impressive victory last week has put the random chess variant into the spotlight and its billionaire organiser plans to expand into all five continents next year

After the success of last week’s Freestyle Chess event where the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, defeated the world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, in the final, its billionaire organiser, Jan Buettner, who made his fortune from AOL Europe, has stepped up his interest further. Buettner adopted a hands-on personal approach to the all-star event and his enthusiasm and involvement shone in an interview he gave to Chessbase India immediately after the tournament.

Buettner’s plan is a Freestyle elite eight-GM invitation in India late in 2024, followed by a five-continent global Tour in 2025, and ­including a new four-player ­women’s ­tournament. Weissenhaus had a $200,000 prize fund, but even that may be just the start, as Buettner has stated that his ambition is for $1m for each of the continental knockouts.