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Announcing Freestyle Friday, A New Weekly Prize Tournament For Titled Players

Announcing Freestyle Friday, A New Weekly Prize Tournament For Titled Players

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We're excited to announce Freestyle Friday, the new weekly tournament for Titled Players presented by Freestyle Chess. The event will take place every Friday at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST starting January 24 and feature a $1,000 prize fund

This new series will be similar to Titled Tuesday, an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control. However, games will be in the Freestyle Chess (Chess960) variant, so players cannot count on their opening prep. Freestyle rapping about chess between rounds is optional.

Freestyle Friday format

Freestyle Friday is another fruit of Chess.com's recently announced partnership with Freestyle Chess, the organization led by German entrepreneur Jan-Henric Buettner and GM Magnus Carlsen. Along with the $4 million Grand Slam Tour, Freestyle Friday is set to popularize the exciting Freestyle variant and breathe new life into the competitive chess world.

Fans can expect to see world number-one Carlsen playing regularly in the event. A vocal proponent of faster time controls in chess competitions, the Norwegian is also one of the main advocates of the Freestyle variant.

GM Magnus Carlsen
Carlsen is likely to participate in many editions of Freestyle Friday. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Carlsen won the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge, a rapid and classical over-the-board event in Germany in early 2024. He also won a promotional mini-match against world number-two GM Fabiano Caruana in Singapore at the end of 2024. Will Carlsen dominate in the blitz format, too?

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