Magnus Carlsen won the Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge in Weißenhaus in the Ostholstein district. The world number one defeated world number two Fabiano Caruana with the white pieces in the second game of the final of the strong chess tournament on Friday. In the first final game on Thursday, the Norwegian Carlsen achieved a draw with the black pieces. As the winner, the 33-year-old will receive $60,000.
Carlsen had big problems at the start of the tournament and only got going late. “At a certain point in the tournament I was very unsure if I was really good enough because I was losing games. “I couldn’t find my form at all,” said Carlsen: “I think my game improved a lot over the course of the tournament.”
The Chess960 chess variant was played at the tournament in Ostholstein. The figures on the baseline are set up almost arbitrarily and at random based on just a few rules. This results in a total of 960 possible starting positions, so there is no classically rehearsed opening to the game. This makes games more creative and unpredictable.
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The tournament is scheduled to take place again in February 2025. “It may well be that by then we will also be holding tournaments in the new format on other continents under the Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge brand,” said initiator Jan Henric Buettner in a statement.