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Co-founder of Freestyle Chess, Jan Henric Buettner, shed light on the circumstances that led to a standoff between the entities and the eventual process of conciliation.
Jan Henric Buettner. (X)
FIDE, the governing body for the sport, has buried the hatchet with Freestyle Chess, the organisation co-founded by World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner.
FIDE had originally opted to refrain from endorsing Freestyle Chess in order to avoid a repeat of the rival events, such as the ones organised by the Professional Chess Association and the World Chess Council, both founded by the legendary Gary Kasparov.
However, FIDE seems to have gone soft on their stand with the announcement of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championships, slated to be held in Weissenhaus, Germany in February.
Buettner shed light on the circumstances that led to a standoff between the entities and the eventual process of conciliation ahead of the inaugural edition of the joint event.
“With Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President, I had a very good understanding. We nearly had an agreement a year ago,” Buettner said.
“We were actually finalising the wording of a press release. And then, at the very last moment, it somehow fell apart. I don’t know how. I don’t want to speculate, but it was kind of very weird,” he revealed.
“And so the whole thing turned from cooperation into confrontation. Then we focused on our own tour and didn’t really bother with it anymore. I think time did its work… We basically reconnected.
“I took the time to fly to Qatar during the World Rapid & Blitz Championship two weeks ago, where we sat down, hammered out our differences, and basically said, ‘Okay, let’s move forward and do what’s beneficial for the players, for FIDE, and also for us and everyone.’ That’s how we agreed, and now we are all friends,” he added.
The inaugural edition of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship is considered as a successor to the Fischer Random World Championship, which FIDE organized from 2019 to 2022.
A total of eight players will participate in the first edition in February. Six have already qualified based on their standings in the inaugural Grand Slam Tour last year, including champion Carlsen. Freestyle Chess and FIDE will each select one player for the remaining slots.
Freestyle Chess has nominated American GM Hans Niemann, while FIDE will conduct an online qualification tournament on Chess.com later this month.
January 09, 2026, 10:55 IST
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