Feb 04, 2025 05:20 AM IST
Additional talks with Fide futile, says Freestyle Chess promoter Jan Buettner; Fide says Freestyle Chess refused to acknowledge its standing as sole regulator of the World Championships
Bengaluru: The impasse between Fide and promoters of Freestyle Chess (Fischer Random) continues with negotiations failing and no decision in sight. In an open letter to Fide on Monday Freestyle Chess promoter Jan Buettner stated additional negotiations with Fide are “futile”. Fide on its half wrote on X: “Despite the intensive negotiations, the Fide Council states that there is currently no agreement regarding the Freestyle Tour. This is due to the other party’s refusal to acknowledge Fide’s status as the sole regulator of the World Chess Championships and its authority to award a World Championship title.”
Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, the world No.1 chess participant, is the main mild in Freestyle Chess. (AP)
The first bone of rivalry has been the title of the ‘World Championship.’ World chess governing physique Fide has been clear about being the only authority for the World Championships. Freestyle Chess and its promoters, which incorporates world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, have been pushing for his or her event sequence to be given the standing of World Championship. “Values that I share thnx to my parents, teachers & friends don’t let me sign the same papers as Freestyle people as I will lose trust of my team and self-respect,” Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich wrote on X on Monday.
“To ensure that no player is forced into a difficult position, we have decided effective immediately, as of February 3 to postpone the decision to award the title of “world champion” to the winner of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour for a further 10 months,” Buettner wrote in his open letter. “The final leg of the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam Tour will take place in South Africa in December. By default, this event will determine the highest-ranked player of the calendar year based on accumulated points. Until then, Freestyle tournaments will continue under the title of “Grand Slams,” and the complete sequence will stay the Grand Slam Tour. This resolution ensures that no participant is pressured to decide on between signing the illegal letter Fide is coercing them into or dealing with its threatened penalties.”
In response to Buettner, Freestyle Chess had agreed to contribute $300,000 yearly to a Fide-controlled event together with co-regulation of Freestyle’s guidelines and laws in alternate for Fide to recognise a ‘Freestyle Chess World Champion’.
The talks have fallen by means of and now issues are again to the place they had been a few months in the past, says Buettner.
“Fide claims that Freestyle is responsible for dividing the chess world. The reality is the opposite: it is Fide that seeks to exert control over all chess competitions and impose its absolute authority on the players, thereby creating the very division of the chess world that they claim to oppose. Freestyle will challenge this overreach in the appropriate courts,” Buettner wrote in his letter.
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