FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship

FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027

Dates

12 to 14 February 2027

Venue

Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort, northern Germany

Organisers

FIDE and Freestyle Chess

Players

8, of whom 5 had qualified by 24 September 2026

Defending champion

Magnus Carlsen (Norway)

Prize fund

Not announced by 24 September 2026; $300,000 in 2026

Women's championship

5 to 7 February 2027, same venue

FIDE and Freestyle Chess confirmed the dates and the venue when they published the last qualification path on 11 August 2026. The championship returns to the resort that hosted the first edition. Eight players take part, and five places were filled by 24 September 2026: the top three of 2026, the winner of the GRENKE Freestyle Chess Open 2026 and the winner of the first Freestyle Friday Championship.

FIDE first set out the qualification paths on 30 January 2026, two weeks before the first edition. Three places were still open on 24 September 2026. The Freestyle Friday Championship is a weekly 11-round Swiss tournament for titled players on Chess.com, at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds a move. Its second part runs every Friday from 2 October to 4 December 2026, and the points of the first part carry over. The seven best players in the combined standings who have not qualified yet then play a knockout on 11 and 18 December for one place.

The last two places go to two online qualifiers, from 29 November to 3 December 2026 and from 3 to 7 January 2027. Each one starts with a nine-round Swiss tournament at 10 minutes plus 2 seconds a move. FIDE's qualification regulations open this first stage to players without a title, but FIDE's news story of 11 August 2026 says that titled players may enter it too.

Carlsen has beaten Caruana in two finals at Weissenhaus: in the G.O.A.T. Challenge in February 2024 and in the world championship final of 2026. Vincent Keymer won the Weissenhaus event in 2025 and the GRENKE Freestyle Chess Open in April 2026, which gave him his place for 2027.

FIDE Women's Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027

The women's championship comes first, from 5 to 7 February 2027 at the same resort. FIDE announced it on 19 February 2026 and gave the exact dates on 11 August 2026. It also has eight players, and five had qualified by 24 September 2026. Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan won her place by beating Alexandra Kosteniuk in an exhibition match at Weissenhaus in 2026. The last three places go through the same Freestyle Friday and online paths as in the Open championship, under the women's qualification rules. No prize fund had been announced by 24 September 2026.

Freestyle chess rules

Freestyle chess, Chess960 and Fischer Random are three names for the same game, according to FIDE. Its rules are part of the FIDE Laws of Chess. Our guide what is freestyle chess explains the rules, the 960 start positions and castling in more detail.

The pawns start on their usual squares. The other pieces go on the first rank in a random order, with two conditions: the two bishops stand on squares of opposite colours, and the king stands somewhere between the two rooks. Black's pieces mirror White's. This gives 960 possible starting positions. After the setup, every other rule of chess stays the same.

Castling works differently, because the king and the rooks can start on other squares. Each player may castle once per game. After castling on the c-side, the king ends on c1 and the rook on d1; after castling on the g-side, the king ends on g1 and the rook on f1 (c8, d8, g8 and f8 for Black). Depending on the start position, the move can shift the king and the rook, only the king or only the rook. The usual limits still apply: neither piece may have moved, every square that the king or the rook crosses or lands on must be empty apart from the two pieces, and the king may not castle out of, through or into check. Our page on castling explains the normal rule.

At the 2026 championship, a new start position was drawn for each round, and all games of the round used it. Position 518, the normal chess setup, was left out of the draw. At the GRENKE Freestyle Chess Open in April 2026, round four drew position 534, which looks like normal chess with the king and queen swapped. For other ways to play without opening theory, see our guide to games like chess.

How the championship works

The first edition in 2026 had eight players and three days of play (FIDE announcement). The format:

1. 1.Round robin: each player met every other player once, 7 rapid games at 10 minutes plus 5 seconds a move. The top four went to the semifinals, and the other four played for places 5 to 8.
2. 2.Semifinals and final: best-of-four matches at 25 minutes plus 10 seconds a move. The two losing semifinalists played a match for third place.
3. 3.Places 5 to 8: best-of-four semifinals, then best-of-two matches for fifth and seventh place.
4. 4.Tiebreak: a level match went to a 10-minute bidding Armageddon game, in which a draw counts as a win for Black.

FIDE and Freestyle Chess had not published the 2027 format or time controls by 24 September 2026. This page will add them when they do.

FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2026 results

Magnus Carlsen won the first FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship, played from 13 to 15 February 2026 at Weissenhaus. He beat Fabiano Caruana 2.5-1.5 in the final, and FIDE counts the title as his 21st world title across all formats.

Carlsen won the round robin with 4.5 points, and Arjun Erigaisi was the only player to beat him in it. Vincent Keymer, Fabiano Caruana and Nodirbek Abdusattorov took the other three semifinal places with 4 points each, half a point ahead of Hans Niemann.

In the semifinals, Carlsen beat Abdusattorov 3-1 and Caruana beat Keymer 2.5-1.5. The final turned in game three, which Carlsen won from a lost position. Abdusattorov beat Keymer 2.5-1.5 for third place.

Hikaru Nakamura was not in the field. In a statement published by Chess.com on 8 January 2026, he declined his place and gave three reasons: the event was rushed, it had been cut down, and it was now tied to FIDE. Abdusattorov took the eighth place by winning the Play-In qualifier on Chess.com on 14 and 15 January 2026. The Play-In was open to all verified titled players who had not qualified: a nine-round Swiss tournament at 10 minutes plus 2 seconds a move, then a knockout of the top four.

2026 final placings and prize money

The prize fund was $300,000, and the champion received $100,000. Chess.com's final report gives the prize for every place: each of the eight players won at least $10,000.

FIDE and Freestyle Chess: how the title began

Freestyle Chess is the company of Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner, who founded it together; Buettner is its CEO. Its first event was the G.O.A.T. Challenge at Weissenhaus in February 2024. In 2025 it ran the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, and Carlsen won the overall tour and a $100,000 bonus. Six of the eight players in 2026 qualified through that tour.

The world title led to a dispute. On 21 January 2025, FIDE said that a freestyle world title without its approval went against its authority, and it threatened legal action. Talks between the two sides broke down in early February 2025, Chess.com reported.

On 7 January 2026 the two sides signed a cooperation agreement. FIDE now governs the championship together with Freestyle Chess, the winner holds the title FIDE Freestyle Chess World Champion, and FIDE says it values this title like its other world championship titles. FIDE also treats the event as the continuation of its two earlier Fischer Random world championships, in 2019 and 2022.

Freestyle chess world champions

Wesley So won the first official title in 2019. The semifinals and the final were played near Oslo from 27 October to 2 November 2019, and So beat Carlsen 13.5-2.5 in the final. Hikaru Nakamura won in Reykjavik in 2022: his final against Ian Nepomniachtchi ended 2-2, and he won the Armageddon game.

Carlsen and Levon Aronian won two events each in 2025, and Aronian beat Carlsen in the tour final in South Africa in December 2025.

Indian players in the Freestyle Chess World Championship

Arjun Erigaisi was the only Indian player in 2026. He qualified through the 2025 Grand Slam Tour, scored 3 out of 7 in the round robin and was the only player to beat Carlsen in it. He then beat Javokhir Sindarov 3-1, lost 0-2 to Hans Niemann in the match for fifth place and finished sixth, worth $20,000. D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa were not in the field.

India has two players in the 2027 championships so far. Pranav Venkatesh won the first Freestyle Friday Championship, which ran on Chess.com from 20 February to 26 June 2026: after 19 weeks he was first in the Open standings with 60 points. In the women's championship, Harika Dronavalli took one of the three places at the GRENKE Freestyle Chess Open in April 2026.

How to watch the Freestyle Chess World Championship

In 2026, DAZN streamed all three days free worldwide except in Norway, with English commentary. Chess24 also showed the event on its YouTube and Twitch channels, and play started at 3 pm CET, 7:30 pm IST. The 2026 games, from the round robin to the final and the women's exhibition match, are in the free Lichess broadcast archive.

No broadcaster for 2027 had been announced by 24 September 2026. In 2026, the organiser named DAZN on 10 February, three days before the first round.

FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship FAQ

For the other top events, with dates and venues, see the chess events calendar.

Facts on this page were checked on 24 September 2026 against FIDE's announcements and the FIDE Laws of Chess, the Freestyle Chess website and Chess.com reports. Chess.com gives the prize money for each place.