Road to Weissenhaus 2027: Final qualification path confirmed
Three spots remain open in both the Open and Womens FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship
Hamburg/Weissenhaus, August 11, 2026 Freestyle Chess and FIDE have confirmed the remaining qualification path for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. Three places are still open in both the Open and Womens fields. They will be awarded through the Freestyle Friday Championship, Open and Womens online qualifiers in November 2026, and final Open and Womens online qualifiers in January 2027.
Freestyle Friday
The next phase begins with Freestyle Friday Championship Part 2. It starts on October 2, 2026, and continues every Friday on Chess.com until December 4. Points earned during Freestyle Friday Part 1 carry over into Part 2. The best eligible players from the combined standings will qualify for the knockout stage, played on December 11 and December 18. The winner of the knockout stage in each field will qualify for the 2027 World Championship.
Online Qualifier I
The next online qualification stage will be held from November 29 to December 3, 2026, with separate qualifiers for the Open and Womens fields. Each qualifier will award one World Championship spot. The format starts with an open Swiss tournament on November 29. A second Swiss tournament for titled players and the top eight finishers from the first Swiss will follow on November 30. The top 16 from the second Swiss will advance to the knockout stage on December 2 and 3. The winner of each final will qualify.
Online Qualifier II
The final online qualification stage will be held from January 3 to 7, 2027, again with separate qualifiers for the Open and Womens fields. Each qualifier will award one final World Championship spot. The format follows the same structure: open Swiss, restricted Swiss, then a 16-player knockout. The winner of each final will complete the line-up in the respective field.
Open to everyone not yet qualified
All online qualifiers are open to players in the respective field who have not yet qualified for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. The first Swiss stage of each November and January qualifier is open to all players, titled or untitled. The second Swiss stage is open to all titled players GM, WGM, IM, WIM, FM, and WFM plus the top eight finishers from the first Swiss.
The qualified players so far
Five of the eight places are already confirmed in both fields.
In the Open field, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer, and Pranav Venkatesh have qualified. Carlsen, Caruana, and Abdusattorov qualified through the 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship in Weissenhaus. Keymer secured his spot by winning the grenke Freestyle Chess Open 2026 in Karlsruhe. Pranav qualified through Freestyle Friday Championship Part 1 after finishing first in the standings with 60 points.
In the Womens field, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Harika Dronavalli, Alua Nurman, Dinara Wagner, and Anna Muzychuk have qualified. Assaubayeva qualified through the 2026 Freestyle Chess exhibition match in Weissenhaus. Harika, Nurman, and Wagner secured their places at the grenke Freestyle Chess Open 2026 in Karlsruhe. Muzychuk qualified through Freestyle Friday Championship Part 1 after finishing first in the Womens standings with 88 points.
Weissenhaus 2027
The 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship will be held at Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort in northern Germany. The Womens World Championship will take place from February 5 to 7, 2027. The Open World Championship will follow from February 12 to 14, 2027.
By January 7, 2027, the full line-ups for both World Championship fields will be complete.
