The 1st Classical Fischer Random chess tournament will be held from 9-16 February at the luxury Weissenhaus Resort located on Germany’s Baltic coast. The event holds the name Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge and features an impressive line-up with World No1 Magnus Carlsen, World No2 Fabiano Caruana, reigning World Chess Champion Ding Liren, World No6 Alireza Firouzja, World No11 Vincent Keymer, World No22 Nodirbek Abdusattorov, World No25 Gukesh D and World No26 Levon Aronian.
Known also as Chess960, Chess9LX, Fischer Chess, the Fischer Random Chess or now Freestyle Chess is a variant of the game where the starting position of pieces gets drawn randomly making the opening preparation impossible. “A dream comes true for me with this format“, said Carlsen adding that he long wished for a competition where Fischer Random chess is played with the classical time control at the highest level.
The event will kick off with a preliminary rapid stage which will determine the starting numbers for the main classical knockout phase. A two-day round-robin will be followed with the classical knock-out matches phase. Each match will consist of two games, and if the result is tied 1-1, the rapid tiebreaker will be played to determine the winner. If the result is still even after the rapid tiebreaks, the players will have a two-game blitz match, and if the result is still tied, they will continue playing blitz games until a winner is found. The total prize fund of the event is $200,000, with $60,000 reserved for the Winner.
The Opening Press Conference is scheduled for 9th of February, starting at 11:00 CET, and Iive broadcast can be followed here. Live broadcast of the games can be followed here.
Tournament schedule:
| Date | Round | Time (CET) |
| February 9, 2024 | Rapid Day 1 | 13:00 |
| February 10, 2024 | Rapid Day 2 | 13:00 |
| February 11, 2024 | Quarterfinals Day 1 | 13:00 |
| February 12, 2024 | Quarterfinals Day 2 | 13:00 |
| February 13, 2024 | Semifinals Day 1 | 13:00 |
| February 14, 2024 | Semifinals Day 2 | 13:00 |
| February 15, 2024 | Finals Day 1 | 13:00 |
| February 16, 2024 | Finals Day 2 | 13:00 |
Detailed information can be found on the official website.
