Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025: Players, format, schedule and all you need to know

The Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025 starts on 7 February in Weissenhaus, Germany, bringing together the best chess players in the world. The Tour will start with Stage 1 which will run from 7 to 14 February. Four more stages are planned across Paris, New York, Delhi and Cape Town. The player with the highest number of points at the end of Stage 5 in Cap Town will be declared the winner.

The Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stag 1 will include the world’s top three chess players and the new world champion D Gukesh. Apart from India’s 18-year-old chess sensation Gukesh, the Germany leg will include co-owner and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, world No.2 Fabiano Caruana, World no.3 Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Vladimir Fedoseev and Javokhir Sindarov.

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How players for the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025 are selected?

There’s a set of criteria for that. Each Grand Slam will include 10 players. Three GMs will be the top three players from the previous Grand Slam followed by the top three players as per the classical FIDE rating. The winner of a major classical tournament and the winner of a qualifying tournament will also be included. The organisers are also allowed to invite two players through wildcards.

In the 2025 Tour, Carlsen, Caruana and Aronian are the three players who qualified as a result of finishing in the top three in the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024. Nakamura, Abdusattorov and Firouzja qualified based on ratings, while Gukesh entered the competition by being the world champion.

Fedoseev progressed by winning the qualification tournament .

Keymer and Viswanathan Anand were handed the wildcards and after the Indian GM pulled out , Sindarov was invited as he finished second in the qualifying tournament.

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What is the Freestyle Chess format?

Freestyle Chess format which is also known as Chess960 or Fischer Random is slightly different from classical chess. Unlike classical chess, in Freestyle Chess, the pieces on the back rank are randomised at the start of the game. The pieces, however, move the same way as in classical chess but there are a few more rules.

The randomised black pieces mirror the white’s positions while the king has to be between the rooks and bishops must be on opposite-color squares.

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour prize fund

Each leg in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will have a prize fund of $75,0000.

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Format

Each leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will start with round-robin matches followed by a knockout stage.

Round robin time control: Rapid 10 minutes for the game + 10 seconds increment per move

Round-robin format: Each player will face the other nine opponents once. The top eight players will advance to the knockout stage.

Knockout stage time control: Classical 90 minutes + 30-second increments per move.

Knockout stage format: Players will get eliminated with one defeat.

Knockout stage tiebreak system:

• Two rapid games (10+10 time control)

• If still tied, two blitz games (5+2 time control)

• If still tied, a bidding Armageddon game

Freestyle Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stage 1 Schedule

Round-robin stage: 7-8 February

Quarter-finals: 9-10 February

Semi-finals and playoffs for 5th to 8th: 11-12 February

Finals: 13-14 February

Day 1 pairing:

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam LIVE Streaming: The matches will be live streamed on Freestyle Chess’s YouTube channel and Chess.com.