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Originally published on freestyle-chess.com
As the key analyst and operator of Stockfish during Freestyle Chess streams, GM Niclas Huschenbeth has dived deeper into Freestyle Chess than most others - especially through the creation of his Freestyle Chess Masterclass, designed specifically to help players sharpen their skills and dominate the game.
Freestyle Chess is a test of creativity and adaptability - no pre-established opening sequences, just 960 unique battlegrounds that test the players' ability to make practical and well-timed decisions. For many, that sounds overwhelming. For Huschenbeth, it's a compelling challenge to decode and master. For many, that sounds like chaos. For Huschenbeth, it's an opportunity.
In his Freestyle Chess Masterclass, the German Grandmaster unveils the principles and strategies that allow players to handle any starting position with confidence. We spoke with him about adapting to 960 positions, breaking symmetry, and mastering piece coordination.
Master Class Vol.2: Mihail Tal
On this DVD Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller present the 8. World Chess Champion in video lessons: his openings, his understanding of chess strategy, his artful endgame play, and finally his immortal combinations.
Niclas, you have developed a Masterclass for Freestyle Chess. Pioneering work?
Yes, it was quite a challenge. A systematic course that explains how to deal with any starting position, that shows rules of thumb and guidelines, that explains strategies and principles – something like that has been missing so far.
Shouldn't there be 960 courses?
I don’t think that would be useful, and it wasn't my approach either. Of course, concrete theory will develop for each individual position the more Freestyle is played. But my first concern was to show universal principles that players can apply to navigate unfamiliar positions: recognizing patterns, planning development, identifying features of a position and using them for better orientation.
Who is the course aimed at?
It is a basic work for beginners and advanced players alike. I want to help everyone who plays Freestyle to find their way around more quickly. My course is designed to provide orientation by showing how to correctly assess a position, which plans make sense and how to think in a structured way. I am eager to see how it is received! Freestyle chess is still in its infancy. It will be fascinating to see how knowledge and strategies develop in the coming years.
In traditional chess, the pieces work together from the start. In Freestyle Chess, they often don't.
An important difference. In Freestyle, the same principles apply in the opening – development, king safety, centre control – but the aspect of coordination is added. In Freestyle, the first moves often also serve the purpose of creating a harmonious position, activating as many pieces as possible without them getting in each other's way. The bishops have to find open diagonals or a knight risks being stuck in a corner, a rook may have trouble getting into the game. In Freestyle, we have to develop an idea from the first move of where the pieces belong and how we can achieve this.
Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024: Levon Aronian has just activated his queen. Vincent Keymer's queen is stuck on b8 and remained passive until it was over
Where does the most powerful piece, the queen, belong?
The queen is a tricky subject in Freestyle. Every chess beginner learns the rule of thumb not to bring the queen into play too early, so that it does not become a target for the opponent's light pieces. In Freestyle, there is the added aspect that the queen must not remain passive for too long. It is our strongest piece, and it must make an impact sooner or later. Even if we don't bring it into play immediately, we still have to make sure to open up paths for it into the game. We should avoid a queen that is condemned to passivity. A good example is a game between Levon Aronian and Vincent Keymer from the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge 2024. A world-class player like Vincent naturally knows that his strongest piece has to play, but he still didn't manage to get his queen involved in the game throughout the entire game. In the end, he lost because of it.
When you sit down to a Freestyle game, what's the first thing you look at?
I look at my pieces. Which ones are good, which ones are bad? A bishop in the corner is good, for example. All it takes is one pawn move and the bishop is blasting across the board. A knight in the corner is not so good, far away from the action. A key question is whether pawns are unprotected, which is the case in 600 of the 960 possible positions. Sometimes you can attack an opponent's pawn with the very first move. In such constellations, both sides must be alert from the very beginning.
Sometimes there are several unprotected pawns in the starting position.
Two and in very rare cases even three. These are often tactical positions in which threats against the unprotected pawns arise with the first move. Such games immediately become sharp and dynamic, which we don't see in traditional chess.
"This goes against classic opening concepts": With the king already safe on b1, Magnus Carlsen didn't need to castle in his game against Hikaru Nakamura; instead, he activated his rook with a2-a4
The Endgame Academy Vol.1: Checkmate & pawn endgames
From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!
If you watch the games from the Grand Slam qualifiers or the first Freestyle Fridays, you'll see a whole series of opening disasters and quick wins.
This will gradually change as the players become more experienced. I've analysed some typical opening disasters in my course to show how to avoid going down in the opening. Even strong grandmasters rarely manage to play the first few moves without inaccuracies or even serious mistakes. It is particularly dangerous to rely too heavily on classic patterns and not realize that the specific starting position poses completely different challenges.
Symmetry is one concept for entering the game with Black, mirroring White's moves. Is that generally recommended?
Mirroring is one of the most important concepts in Freestyle, especially for Black. In the first few moves, simply copying White’s moves can often be a solid strategy. This prevents you from getting into a worse position early on or unintentionally creating weaknesses. But it can't continue forever. Black has to break away from mirroring at some point, and White will look for ways to break the symmetry. This often works by White applying a pawn break or setting up a tactical threat that the opponent must meet. Timing is critical in deciding when to break the symmetry. In the course, I explain in detail when mirroring is a good strategy and when you should deviate from it.
Fabiano Caruana breaking symmetry early with 3.d2-d4
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