The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour started with its first leg in Germany this month, as Vincent Keymer reigned supreme at Weissenhaus. For Indian chess followers, it was a supply of disappointment as reigning world champion D Gukesh endured a winless run.
D Gukesh’s chief coach questioned the long-term way forward for Freestyle Chess.
The 18-year-old completed in eighth place, and is about to return to Paris for the following Grand Slam occasion, scheduled for April. The Paris Grand Slam occasion may even see Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa be a part of Gukesh and type a powerful Indian contingent.
D Gukesh’s chief coach questions Freestyle Chess’ future?
But it surely seems like Gukesh is not sure about his Freestyle Chess future, as revealed by his chief coach Grzegorz Gajewski. The Polish GM spoke to Hindustan Occasions and revealed that because of the India No. 1 younger age, he nonetheless must develop within the regular model of the sport, and he went on to query the way forward for the Grand Slam Tour.
“The question though is whether you want to adjust and change the way you look at chess, because, if you adapt to this format, it could potentially backfire in the normal version of the game. So, for us there’s a clear problem of how much time we should devote to Freestyle considering that Gukesh is so young and there are so many things that he has yet to learn in the normal version of the game. We’re kind of hesitant about which approach we should choose for him because as exciting and fresh Freestyle is, there’s no guarantee that in two years’ time there will be another Grand Slam Tour and we don’t know in which direction it’s headed,” he stated, whereas analysing Fischer Random chess.
In an earlier interview with ChessBase India throughout the Weissenhaus Grand Slam occasion, Gukesh additionally remarked that Chess960 is an experiment, and he doesn’t see it taking on classical chess. “I think 960 is nice as an experiment, but I don’t see it taking over classical chess. The Classical World Chess Championship cycle will be much more important than 960, so I am glad to experiment with the 960,” he stated.
Gajewski’s commentary and likewise Gukesh’s earlier feedback create a way of confusion as he’s taking part within the Paris Grand Slam occasion. Gukesh’s function because the reigning world champion may additionally play a giant function of their pro-FIDE feedback.
FIDE discovered itself in huge controversy within the first week of February when it introduced that there was no official recognition for a Freestyle Chess World Championship. In response, Freestyle Chess launched an open letter, which additionally leaked alleged WhatsApp messages with FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich. Freestyle Chess co-founders Jan Henric Buettner and Magnus Carlsen additionally accused Dvorkovich of backtracking from his promise of giving official recognition. Since then, Freestyle Chess have agreed to not have a World C’ship, a choice will probably be taken later.