2/15/2026 – The FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship is taking place on 13-15 February at the Weissenhaus resort. Eight players have qualified through the 2025 Grand Slam Tour and online competition. In Sunday's finals, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana battle to become the Freestyle Chess world champion. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 15.00 CET (9.00 ET, 19.30 IST)
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Finals
The FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2026 is staged from 13 to 15 February at the Schloss Weissenhaus resort in Wangels, Germany. It is the first world championship under that title and the third official World Chess960 Championship organised by FIDE.
Friday, February 13: The tournament opens with a rapid round-robin stage, following the format used in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam events. All eight players face each other once with a time control of 10 minutes plus 5-second increment. The top four players advance to the semifinals, while the remaining players move into placement matches.
Saturday, February 14: The knockout stage begins with the semifinals and placement matches, played with a time control of 25 minutes plus 10-second increment. The semifinals will be played as four-game matches.
Sunday, February 15: The final, played over four games, and the placement matches use the same 25 minutes plus 10-second increment. In the final, the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Champion is determined.
All final places from first to eighth will be decided over the board. The total prize fund is $300,000, with $100,000 awarded to the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Champion.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game. In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike, because nothing is more annoying than missing a winning combination in the decisive situation, and thus giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game. So it is vital to train tactics properly - and Master Class Tactics offers you the perfect tool for this! On this Fritztrainer, IM Oliver Reeh has compiled his favourites from the CBM column “Tune your Tactics” issues 219 to 227.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Do you know the Archangelsk? / Sukovic - Kazakousky
2/12/2026 – The FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship 2026 will take place from 13 to 15 February at the Schloss Weissenhaus resort in Germany, marking the first jointly organised world title event in this format under an agreement between FIDE and a private organiser. Eight players, including Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, have qualified through the 2025 Grand Slam Tour and online competition, while a women's exhibition match will also be staged alongside the main event. | Photo: Freestyle Chess / Lennart Ootes
1/15/2026 – The Swiss stage of the online Play-in for the Freestyle Chess World Championship has determined the four players who remain in contention for the final qualification place. Over nine rounds of Freestyle Chess, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Pranav Venkatesh (pictured), Grigoriy Oparin and Amin Tabatabaei finished level on 7/9 to secure places in Thursday's knockout stage. | Photo: Fujairah Superstars / Anna Shtourman
On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!
Tata Steel 2026 with analyses by Bluebaum, Giri, L'Ami, Woodward and many more. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Marin and Zwirs. 10 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
Opening videos: Daniel King presents new ideas against Caro-Kann with 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+. ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’: Najdorf, Petroff and Scotch. ‘Move by Move’ with Robert Ris. ‘Lucky bag’ with 37 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
Instead of forcing you to memorise endless lines, Raja focuses on clear plans, typical ideas, and attacking motifs that you can apply in your own games without delay. A short, focused, and practical repertoire.
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