Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge 2024 concluded today at the WEISSENHAUS Private Nature Luxury Resort and the event’s sponsor Jan Henric Buettner confirmed the event will definitely continue to run. Among the ideas about the playing system next year, he announced that he’ll work towards having a Grand Slam of the Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge with five tournaments and $1,000,000 in prizes at each event.
All information about Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge 2024 can be found here.
Jan Buettner presented the awards to the Winners of this year’s event at the closing ceremony, and then revealed that another Fischer random classical event will be organized next year at the same location. “I can now say that we will definitely have another event here in one year from now“, announced Buettner. He also disclosed more about the invitees of the 2025 edition and confirmed that Hikaru Nakamura will be invited again: “We know that five of the players who were playing will play next year. We’re gonna have three wild cards, which we will carefully decide between Magnus and the whole team, about who we would like to invite. We already extended the invitation to Hikaru Nakamura and seems like he would’ve done this event as well, but he wanted to prepare differently for the Candidates Tournament. It’s not very clear who will come [next year] but we will clarify that in the next few months.“.
Buettner explained that we might also have some Fischer-random events before the next Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge, and that serious discussions are ongoing between the players and the organizing team. He added that the main idea is to have the Grand Slam of the Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge: “If all of my craziness and ides come true and we’re gonna manage that… I’ll just tell you my dream… My dream is a Grand Slam of the Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge! On five continents, five times a year, with five-time the prize money so that we have each tournament a $1,000,000 prize-money! That’s my goal and I am gonna negotiate that“. A complete video of Jan Buettner’s speech at the closing ceremony can be seen below.
