Freestyle Chess heading to Las Vegas with new changes to format | Chess News

The next event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will have some radical changes in place, thanks to Magnus Carlsen and his father Henric Carlsen. Jan Henric Buettner, the man behind the Freestyle Chess tour, revealed on the official broadcast of Freestyle Chess Tour on Friday that the next event will see 45-minute games with a 10-second increment per move rather than a 90-minute game with 30-second increment that we saw at Paris in the ongoing event. This move was brought in at former world champion Carlsen’s behest, Buettner said.
Buettner said that as the tour tried to attract more sponsors, they felt the need to shorten the games because for a four-hour game, it is very difficult to get an audience if you are not in India”. The idea was also green lighted the world no 1.
“Magnus said basically that they as players have gained so much in terms of quality that they do not need the 90 minutes anymore. He said they can go with 45-minute games. So that is kind of the decision of Magnus, and I talked to some other players before to see that we have not only Magnus but everybody on board,” Buettner said before revealing that the format itself will have many many changes being implemented after a conversation he had with Carlsen’s father Henric.
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The idea behind shortening the games is also to shorten the event itself from the current eight-day format to a more concise five-day event, where both legs of a round will be played on the same day. This means players will play two 45-minute games with colours reversed on the same day at the next Freestyle event rather than having the two games spread over two days with a 90+10 time control.
The shorter time control will have an effect on players like Gukesh, who has struggled in the faster time control games besides hitting a wall in Freestyle Chess.
Buettner also revealed that the next event of the tour will be held at Las Vegas instead of New York. While he did not reveal too many details about the switch of location, he added that there will be live audience members in attendance for the games.

Given the troubles the organisers have experienced at Paris because of players like Hans Niemann and Alireza Firozja withdrawing at the last minute, the tour will also name two stand players for each event.

Amit Kamath is Assant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. … Read More