Bengaluru: Twelve Grandmasters, eight of the world’s top 10 – they include three Indians – will ditch opening preparation and trade staid business suits for colourful velvet jackets at the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour starting on April 7.
After a forgettable outing in the year’s first Freestyle Chess tournament in Weissenhaus, Germany, India’s reigning world champion D Gukesh will take part in the second tournament of the series. Apart from the world No. 3, the other Indians in the field are R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi.
Vidit, world No.25, joins the event days after his wedding. Arjun qualified for the event, winning three Freestyle Fridays in a row. “In classical games, I sometimes take extra risks and go out of my way to create interesting positions. In Freestyle, those interesting positions arise naturally, even without me taking deliberate risks. Perhaps that suits me,” Arjun said.
Freestyle Chess or Chess 960, which has randomised starting positions, will see the 12 players take on each other in round-robin matches the first two days at the historic Bois de Vincennes in Paris. Eight will qualify for the classical time control knockouts and the final will take place on April 14. The winner is guaranteed a neat $2,00,000 in prize money. Germany’s Vincent Keymer, who served as Gukesh’s second during last year’s World Championship match, won the year’s first Freestyle event in Weissenhaus.
Freestyle Chess, which is backed by world No.1 Magnus Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Buettner, has been in the eye of a storm after a showdown with world chess governing body, Fide. Fide has been insistent about holding exclusive authority over the ‘World Championship’ title, one that Freestyle Chess’ promoters had ambitions for.
No Carlsen vs Niemann
In a surprise turn of events, the organisers announced on Saturday that Hans Niemann had pulled out of the event. The Niemann versus Carlsen faceoff was an anticipated one, which will no longer take place following the last-minute withdrawal. The American was handed a wildcard after he won the Grenke Chess Open last year.
The bad blood between Carlsen and Niemann goes back to the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, where the five-time world champion lost to Niemann with White, accused him of cheating and pulled out of the tournament. It turned out to be one of the most controversial episodes in modern chess and the matter went to court before it was settled privately. Niemann has been replaced by the Uzbek world No.6 Nodirbek Abdusattarov in Paris. A couple of days ago, French-Iranian Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja pulled out of the event. He was replaced by Hungarian GM Richard Rapport.
The line-up: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattarov, Richard Rapport, Vincent Keymer, Vidit Gujrathi, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
