FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship Play-In set for next week
On January 7, FIDE and Freestyle Chess officially announced the inaugural FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship, scheduled to take place in Weissenhaus, Germany, from February 13–15. To complete the lineup for the event, Chess.com will host a Play-In qualifier to determine the remaining player who will compete at the event. The Play-In qualifier will be held on January 14–15, starting at 10:00 AM ET / 16:00 CET, and offers a ticket to the $300,000 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. The event is open to all verified titled players who have not already qualified for the Championship. All participants in the Swiss stage will be required to use Proctor. The Play-In will follow a familiar qualification format, beginning with a nine-round Swiss tournament played at a 10+2 time control. The top four players will advance to the knockout stage. The knockout will be a single-elimination competition, with each match consisting of two games played at a 15+3 time control. In the event of a tie, players will contest two 5+2 games, followed, if necessary, by a bidding Armageddon with a base time of five minutes, in which the bid winner receives the black pieces. The winner of the Play-In will secure the final spot in the first FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship, joining the seven players who have already qualified through the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour or were selected as wildcards by Freestyle Chess: GM Magnus Carlsen GM Levon Aronian GM Fabiano Caruana GM Vincent Keymer GM Arjun Erigaisi GM Javokhir Sindarov GM Hans Niemann The Play-In features a $5,000 prize fund, with $1,000 awarded to first place, $700 to the runner-up, $550 each to the third- and fourth-place finishers.