Freestyle Chess, a groundbreaking new venture founded by Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner, announced today that it is raising $12 million in funding from Left Lane Capital. This significant investment will be used to establish a leading tournament series that aims to revolutionize the world of chess.
The event series will showcase the worldโs best chess players, each with compelling stories, in a completely new and attractive format for media, spectators, and consumers. The 25 Super Grand Masters currently representing the total of the Freestyle Chess Players Club all have an ELO rating above 2725.
The company will organize six to eight Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tournaments per year across all continents, introducing Freestyle Chess as an exciting new global event series. The prize funding for the tournaments that will be distributed among the players has been set to $750,000 fรผr each of the first three events, and $1 million for every tournament thereafter.
Freestyle Chess maintains the core elements of traditional chess but with a twist: the back row is randomized. This setup is Fischer Random and adds new strategic elements and unpredictability to the game, fostering a fresh era of competitive play.
โChess needs to evolve into a more dynamic and captivating spectacle, one that allows players to showcase their skills from the first move,โ says Magnus Carlsen, Co-founder of Freestyle Chess, who has been instrumental in shaping the format for Freestyle Chess competitions. โModern chess variants like Fischer Random will define the future of chess, which needs to evolve to more thrilling gameplay.โ
