Freestyle Chess: Anna Cramling vs Alexandra Botez

by André Schulz
2/12/2025 – The world's elite are competing in the Freestyle Chess tournament at Weissenhaus. However, Anna Cramling and Alexandra Botez proved in an exhibition match that Freestyle Chess is also something for ambitious amateur or club players. Levon Aronian showed his qualities as a commentator – he was not always satisfied with the moves of the young ladies.
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Magnus Carlsen is an enthusiastic supporter of Freestyle Chess. As the world number one knows all the openings inside out, he looks forward to fresh and unknown positions with unfamiliar patterns and new problems.

For most amateur and club players, even "normal" chess is often Freestyle. A few moves after the opening, there is usually a position on the board that has never been seen before. With new problems and unknown solutions.

So it might not be a bad idea to practise Freestyle Chess to keep your brain in shape. 

With Anna Cramling, Alexandra and Andrea Botez, successful female streamers are on site at the Weissenhaus Resort during the Freestyle Chess Tournament, commenting on the action, but of course also wanting to play and try out Freestyle Chess themselves.

In a show match, Anna Cramling and Alexandra Botez played a duel in this variation of chess. Levon Aronian and Andrea Botez provided live commentary. The world class grandmaster was not always happy with the moves made, but Andrea Botez defended her sister as best she could.

Andrea Botez began by asking her co-commentator who he thought was the favourite in the game. Levon Aronian saw Anna Cramling as having the better chances because she had the better "chess genes" thanks to her parents, Grandmaster Pia Cramling and Grandmaster Manuel Bellon Lopez. This prompted a protest from Andrea Botez: "Do you think we don't have good chess genes?"

The game was played with a long time control, which shows that the two young women took the game very seriously. In the end, the encounter took almost two and a half hours. Both streamers broadcast the game live with comments on their channels and reached well over 200,000 viewers.

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Topics: Freestyle Chess
André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.