FIDE and Freestyle Chess had engaged in a heated feud last year but have finally joined hands to organise a World Championship in Weissenhaus next month.
FIDE had been in loggerheads not just Magnus Carlsen in recent years but also with Freestyle Chess, the organisation that the world No 1 and five-time world champion is a co-founder of. Freestyle Chess, after all, had launched the inaugural Grand Slam Tour last year with events in five different locations, including Paris, Las Vegas and Cape Town – which hosted the finals last month.
FIDE however, had put its foot down when it came to the idea of a Freestyle Chess World Championship, insisting only they had the right to organise tournaments that would officially crown a world champion in a particular format.
The Lausanne-based governing body for the sport, after all, wanted to avoid a repeat of rival world championships in the past that had been organised by the Professional Chess Association and the World Chess Council – both of which were founded under the auspices of the legendary Garry Kasparov.
Freestyle Chess co-founder reveals burying the hatchet with FIDE in Qatar
So why this change of heart on the part of FIDE, who now appear to have buried the hatchet with Freestyle Chess with the
announcement of the inaugural FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship that will be taking place in Weissenhaus, Germany from 13 to 15 February?
German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, who had co-founded Freestyle Chess along with Carlsen in 2024, revealed how the two organisations found common ground after a year of bad blood.
“With Arkady (Dvorkovich, FIDE President), I had a very good understanding. We nearly had an agreement a year ago. 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,” Buettner told The Indian Express.
“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.
No better way to start 2026 off than by sharing this extremely exciting news with everyone!!! https://t.co/RDQezQmztX
— Freestyle Chess (@chess_freestyle) January 7, 2026
The inaugural FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship is being treated as a successor to the Fischer Random World Championship that had been organised by FIDE from 2019 to 2022.
A total of eight players will be in action in the inaugural edition in February, six of whom have already qualified on the basis of their standings in the inaugural Grand Slam Tour last year, including champion Carlsen. Freestyle Chess and FIDE will additionally get to pick one player each for the remaining slots.
Freestyle Chess have nominated American GM Hans Niemann while FIDE will be conducting an online qualification tournament on Chess.com later later this month.
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