The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 first leg begins on 7 February and will end on 14 February, it is a series of Chess90 tournaments. The series will have five “grand slam” tournaments taking place in different cities all across the world.
The players will score points based on the placement of each event. The highest scorer will win the title at the end of the year. The last leg of the tournament concludes on 12 December 2025.
The tour was co-founded by five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner. Each tournament will have 10 participants and the top 8 will advance to the knockout stage.
Co-founder Magnus Carlsen, who would also be playing this year, told ChessBase India, “I’m very much looking forward to playing the classical world champion, Gukesh. Obviously, I look forward to playing everybody, but getting a chance to play Hikaru Nakamura here… last year, there was a bit of a generational battle. I’ll be trying a little bit harder to beat the youngsters”.
Gukesh recently became the youngest chess World Champion at the age of 18 in December 2024. He’s the second Indian chess player to hold the title after Viswanathan Anand.
Also Read: EXPLAINED: Here’s Why Praggnanandhaa Isn’t Part Of The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour
Co-founder Jan Henric revealed why Viswanathan Anand won’t be playing in the tournament as he was supposed to, he told Times of India, “It was my idea to invite him in the first place because I thought it was a great opportunity, but then, for some reason, he chose to become the FIDE Vice President. I don’t know if it’s the wisest decision—having an official role in FIDE,” he said. “But Anand has made it, so now he is also standing for the FIDE position”.
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and FIDE Dispute
The dispute is regarding the term “world championship”, as FIDE claims they are the sole regulators of the World Chess Championships and only they can award the title. They criticised Freestyle Chess for branding their tour as a World Championship.
Tensions escalated, with FIDE requiring players on the Freestyle Tour to sign a waiver to compete in official World Championship events. However, the dispute was resolved after they decided to remove the term from their branding, and FIDE confirmed that the players could now compete in the tournament without any restrictions. Carlsen remains critical of the FIDE leadership which could be the reason for Anand’s exit from the series.
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Schedule: Mark Your Calendars
The tournament will take place in 5 legs, each of it taking place in different countries. Here is the schedule of the series.
| Dates | Host city |
| 7 February to 14 February | Wangels, Germany |
| 8 April to 15 April | Paris, France |
| 17 July to 24 July | New York, U.S.A. |
| 17 September to 24 September | New Delhi, India |
| 5 December to 12 December | Cape Town, South Africa |
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025: List of all Players
| Player Name | World Ranking | Country |
| Magnus Carlsen | 1 | Norway |
| Fabiano Caruana | 2 | U. S. A. |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 3 | U. S. A. |
| Gukesh Dommaraju | 5 | India |
| Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 6 | Uzbekistan |
| Alireza Firouzja | 7 | France |
| Levon Aronian | 11 | U. S. A. |
| Vincent Keymer | 20 | Germany |
| Vladimir Fedoseev | 26 | Slovenia |
| Javokhir Sindarov | 37 | Uzbekistan |
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025: Prize Money
| Rank | Grand Slam Points | Prize Money |
| 1st | 25 | $200,000 |
| 2nd | 18 | $140,000 |
| 3rd | 15 | $100,000 |
| 4th | 12 | $60,000 |
| 5th | 10 | $50,000 |
| 6th | 8 | $40,000 |
| 7th | 6 | $30,000 |
| 8th | 4 | $20,000 |
| 9th | 2 | $12,500 |
| 10th | 1 | $7,500 |
