2/17/2024 – Magnus Carlsen defeated Fabiano Caruana with the white pieces to claim overall victory at the first edition of the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Chess Challenge. The Norwegian took home the US$ 60,000 first prize for his efforts. Levon Aronian grabbed third place after beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Alireza Firouzja secured an invitation to the next edition of the event by beating Gukesh D in the fight for fifth place. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The Big Database 2025 contains more than 11 million games from 1475 to 2024.
€99.90
“Chess is Magnus Carlsen”
From 2013 to 2023, Magnus Carlsen was the undisputed classical world chess champion, as he beat Vishy Anand (twice), Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi in matches for the crown. However, soon after Nepomniachtchi won the 2022 Candidates, the Norwegian announced that he would not defend his title, noting that the format is not to his liking as he would favour a format including more games with a quicker time control.
Nevertheless, Carlsen’s standing as the strongest chess player in the world has not been truly challenged since his withdrawal from the World Championship cycle. At the end of 2023, the 33-year-old won both the rapid and the blitz World Championships (for a fifth time and for a seventh time, respectively). He also grabbed his third consecutive Champions Chess Tour title, i.e. the biggest achievement in the world of online chess.
Let our authors show you how Carlsen tailored his openings to be able to outplay his opponents strategically in the middlegame or to obtain an enduring advantage into the endgame.
Now, at the newest super-tournament on the calendar, he justified his status as the G.O.A.T.(as per the event’s own appraisal) by winning the first edition of the Freestyle Challenge, which rebranded the chess960 variant of the royal game — much like the Saint Louis Chess Club had done with the Chess 9LX events.
An elegant outfit in an elegant setting | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase
Carlsen, as he has often done in the past, started slowly, scoring 4½/7 points in the rapid section, with losses against Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh. Moreover, he would then lose his first classical game in the quarter-finals against Alireza Firouzja.
From that point on, however, there was no stopping the “Greatest Of All Time”. After beating Firouzja in tiebreaks, Carlsen defeated Abudsattorov and Fabiano Caruana by 1½-½ scores to win the event outright, showcasing his usual combination of excellent strategic assessment and effective pragmatic decision-making.
In April 2023, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik was interviewed by World Chess. When asked about Carlsen, the Russian legend had this to say about his former colleague:
I understand that this is a player which is born once in a century. He just changed chess. Chess is him in the last ten to fifteen years. Chess is Magnus Carlsen.
Well-known GM and commentator David Howell helped Carlsen to prepare for the event
1.g4, 2.0-0-0
In the second game of the final, Carlsen immediately grabbed the initiative with a couple of moves you could only see in a ‘freestyle chess’ position: 1.g4 c6 (1...0-0-0 is stronger!) and 2.0-0-0, castling queenside on move 2.
Carlsen v. Caruana
Carlsen had a strategic edge, and found a couple of remarkable ideas to make progress in the middlegame. For example, his 22.a4, preparing ideas with Nc3-b5, was approved both by the engines and by the commentators.
It was exactly in this position that Caruana made a big positional mistake by playing 22...Nxc3, damaging White’s structure but also allowing his opponent to simplify into a better endgame — note that White counts with a dangerous passed pawn on the h-file.
There followed 23.bxc3 fxg4 24.Rxf4 Qxf8, and here Carlsen found an elegant way to simplify.
25.Qxc7+ Kxc7 26.Nxe6 Kd6 27.Nxf8 Rxf8, and the h-pawn will decide the game in White’s favour. Further precise manoeuvres in the ensuing rook endgame gave an inspired Carlsen overall victory in the game, the match and the tournament!
Glorious sacrifices, unexpected tactics and checkmating attacks. The King's Gambit is one of the oldest and most romantic openings in the game of chess. This DVD contains all you need to know to tackle your opponent.
Expert analysis by IM Robert Ris
Aronian, Firouzja and Keymer prevail
None of the four matches that took place between Thursday and Friday reached the rapid and blitz tiebreakers, as all four winners defeated their opponents in the classical portion of the confrontations.
Levon Aronian beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov in style to get third place in the event.
Alireza Firouzja obtained the draw he needed to beat Gukesh and secure a spot in the next edition of the tournament by obtaining fifth place.
Aronian’s victory with the white pieces was surely memorable. The oldest player in the field was perhaps the one who showed the most creative ideas throughout the event. He even participated in the freestyle (rap) contest organized by the tournament’s social media team.
Sondheim has lyrics to inspire at any given moment.
The fun is in the winning, not what's won. What you've made, what you've spent, Those are not the main even. With every hand you stake a whole new claim The only thing that matters is the game.
Aronian did not win the rap contest (sintax.the.terrific won!), but he did find a remarkable way to end his game against Abdusattorov.
Aronian v. Abdusattorov
With the pawn on the c-file a square away from becoming a queen, Aronian opted for simplifications via 31.Rxe4+ fxe4 32.Qxe4+ Ne5 and 33.Qxh1, temporarily giving up a queen to deal with Black’s threats on the first rank.
In this Video-Course we deal with different dynamic decisions involving pawns. The aim of this Course is to arm club/tournament players with fresh ideas which they can use in their own practice.
There is no stopping an eventual c7-c8Q, so Abdusattorov resigned four moves later.
Alireza Firouzja finishes 5th and secures his spot for the next edition of Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge! After a win yesterday, Alireza made a draw today against D Gukesh to win the match and take 5th position.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.