No resolution in Fide-Freestyle Chess standoff

Bengaluru: The deadlock between Fide and promoters of Freestyle Chess (Fischer Random) continues with negotiations failing and no resolution in sight. In an open letter to Fide on Monday Freestyle Chess promoter Jan Buettner said further negotiations with Fide are “futile”. Fide on its part wrote on X: “Despite the intensive negotiations, the Fide Council states that there is currently no agreement regarding the Freestyle Tour. This is due to the other party’s refusal to acknowledge Fide’s status as the sole regulator of the World Chess Championships and its authority to award a World Championship title.”

The primary bone of contention has been the title of the ‘World Championship.’ Global chess governing body Fide has been clear about being the sole authority for the World Championships. Freestyle Chess and its promoters, which includes world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, have been pushing for their tournament series to be given the status of World Championship. “Values that I share thnx to my parents, teachers & friends don’t let me sign the same papers as Freestyle people as I will lose trust of my team and self-respect,” Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich wrote on X on Monday.

“To ensure that no player is forced into a difficult position, we have decided effective immediately, as of February 3 to postpone the decision to award the title of “world champion” to the winner of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour for an additional 10 months,” Buettner wrote in his open letter. “The final leg of the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam Tour will take place in South Africa in December. By default, this event will determine the highest-ranked player of the calendar year based on accumulated points. Until then, Freestyle tournaments will continue under the title of “Grand Slams,” and the entire series will remain the Grand Slam Tour. This decision ensures that no player is forced to choose between signing the unlawful letter Fide is coercing them into or facing its threatened consequences.”

According to Buettner, Freestyle Chess had agreed to contribute $300,000 annually to a Fide-controlled tournament along with co-regulation of Freestyle’s rules and regulations in exchange for Fide to recognise a ‘Freestyle Chess World Champion’.

The talks have fallen through and now things are back to where they were a couple of months ago, says Buettner.

“Fide claims that Freestyle is responsible for dividing the chess world. The reality is the opposite: it is Fide that seeks to exert control over all chess competitions and impose its absolute authority on the players, thereby creating the very division of the chess world that they claim to oppose. Freestyle will challenge this overreach in the appropriate courts,” Buettner wrote in his letter.