Magnus Carlsen Hits 2900 As Freestyle Chess Introduces New Ratings

GM Magnus Carlsen tops the first-ever Freestyle Chess rating list, hitting the 2900 barrier after dominating the chess variant in his latest events. 

Already the world number-one in FIDE's official classical, rapid, and blitz ratings, the 34-year-old Norwegian now also leads the newly-introduced list for Freestyle Chess, also known as Fischer Random or Chess960, officially announced by Freestyle Chess on Thursday.

The list places Carlsen first with a staggering 2909 rating. "A new standard has been set," the Norwegian told Freestyle Chess after the list’s publication, also joking: "My wife is way more attracted to me now that I’ve achieved 2900."

My wife is way more attracted to me now that I’ve achieved 2900.
—Magnus Carlsen

Carlsen sits 91 points ahead of the second player on the list, GM Hikaru Nakamura at 2818. GM Fabiano Caruana is third with 2804, 105 points behind Carlsen. That means the order of the three highest-ranked Freestyle Chess players follows the current order of the classical FIDE ranking.

The top 10 Freestyle list also reveals notable contrasts with traditional ratings: GM Vincent Keymer shines with 2766 in sixth place, while current world champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju is 26th at 2701, 21 places below his classical rank. You can see the top 30 below, while the full list is available in PDF.

This rating list includes 578 players and draws from over a year of classical-length games across five major Freestyle events. Freestyle Chess noted that Carlsen has gained 79 rating points in 14 months after starting with a 2830 mark with his win in the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge 2024.

Earlier this year, the Norwegian 34-year-old also won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Paris, convincingly defeating Nakamura in the final, before he dominated the 2025 Grenke Freestyle Chess Open to score a historic 9/9.

Carlsen's result in Karlsruhe was one of the best of his career, comparable to Fischer's 11/11 in the 1963/64 U.S. Championship. It was an extraordinary achievement by the Norwegian, who beat every single opponent. Six of them were grandmasters ranked among the 50 best players in the world.

Mehmet Ismail, a Lecturer and Assistant Professor in Economics at Kings College in London, specializing in game theory, calculated a performance rating of 3191 for the performance, exceeding Caruana's 3096 performance from the 2014 Sinquefield Cup. 

The former world champion has previously reached the 2900 mark in faster time controls. His blitz peak is an astonishing 2986 from December 2017, while his rapid rating hit 2919 in July the same year. In classical, he reached the highest rating ever recorded with 2882, a mark he hit in 2014 and 2019. 

Carlsen decided to shift goals after announcing that he would give up his world championship title in 2022. Instead, he set his eyes on reaching 2900 in classical, an impossible target that proved to be too ambitious.

"The goal of breaking 2900 has mostly been about motivating myself to be in top shape when I play classical chess. I've put that goal on hold a bit, so instead I'll bring it back up if I get closer,” he said at the time.

While this marks the first ratings in the variant, the idea has been floated for years. In 2018, Gunnar Bjornsson of the Icelandic Chess Federation proposed that FIDE would create such ratings, but while the proposal initially was met with enthusiasm, it never gained traction. One of the discussions revolved around whether there would be a need for three separate lists for each time control.

Bjornsson, speaking to Chess.com, welcomed the new ratings, but said FIDE should take charge. "My idea was simply to have one rating for all time controls. Somehow, this calculation never started. And my feeling is that Fischer Random might have grown earlier than it did it it had been done."

My idea was simply to have one rating for all time control. Somehow this calculation never started.
—Gunnar Bjornsson, President of the Icelandic Chess Federation

"In my opinion, FIDE should follow my suggestion from 2020 and start calculating ratings for Fischer Random," he added.

While the rating list is based on a limited number of events, 2025 has seen an increased interest in the variant. The 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, initially played with a classical time control, will see further events played as rapid. The organizers told Chess.com that upcoming events, such as the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas from July 16-20, will be counted on the list.