Why is Freestyle chess renaming Chess960?

Im confused. I Thought 960 / Freestyle are one in the same. Why have issues with the preferred noun? I just dont understand respectfully!  :thinker

I think the description freestyle is more easily understood by the masses as opposed to Fischer Random or Chess 960. After all, marketing chess to the masses is the goal. Of course we as regular chess players already know about FR and 960 but freestyle is a more relatable word for non full time players. Freestyle makes more sense from a marketing viewpoint. .

Fischer Random is an odd name because adding someone's name to a game is unusual, unnecessary and also Shuffle Chess was a thing before Fischer Random, where the pieces would be shuffled on their starting squares according to some algorithm, with the same idea of no opening theory. I'm not sure if Shuffle Chess used the same rules as Fischer Random, probably Fischer came up with something and he certainly tried to popularize it, but a game isn't the same as an opening. More importantly, Fischer wasn't exactly very politically correct to say the least. No sponsor wants to associate themselves with him if they can avoidit.

Chess960 as a name also is a little strange, what other names of games have a number in them? A lot of people don't particularly like numbers, and it may make it sound like there's some math involved lol. People don't even know how to say it - chess nine hundred and sixty or chess nine-sixty. It's just a bit of a weird name, and probably better to rename it as soon as possible.

Thing is, I'm not sure Freestyle is such a good name either. It's not very accurate for me. Maybe they should just go back to the original Shuffle Chess name - it describes things perfectly. Randomized Chess could work also if you think that rolls off the tongue better.

Yeah , like WHY. chess960 sounds better