Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge - The rise of Random Chess

In two weeks the Magnus Carlsen's tournament WEISSENHAUS Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge is about to initiate with the perspective of becoming the next big tournament shaping the future of the greatest board game ever played.

According to Magnus and many Super GMs classical chess has become too heavy and boring to play. Since the advancement of the chess engines took part in the preparation, memorization of lines deep into the opening theory takes significant portion of it. The long time controls can be nerve-racking for the players and almost impossible for the wide audience to follow.

In Random chess or by the name of its creator the 11th world chess champion Bobby Fischer, Fischer Random chess the starting position on the board differs from the classical chess itself. The rules of the game basically remain the same with possible 960 variants. When setting up the starting position two rules need to be followed: the king must be placed between the rooks and the bishops need to be placed on opposite color squares.

As a beginner player and adult learner I have just recently stumbled across chess 960 and instantly became fond of it. I don't think that opening theory completely goes out of use, rather the players need to determine the week points of the structure and try to exploit them. The memorization of moves won't work but the ideas behind the openings are still there waiting to be discovered. As such Random or Freestyle chess proves to be intellectually stimulating and a great challenge for everyone willing to even further test themselves.

I hope for even greater recognition of Random chess and to see it played in more classical time controls.

We definitely are witnessing new exciting era in chess.