Viswanathan Anand's sudden wildcard U-turn dubbed 'not wise' by Freestyle Chess owner: 'If Magnus Carlsen apologised...'

The chess world is currently in a massive transitional phase as the older generation of Grandmasters hand over the baton to the younger players. D Gukesh's victory at the World Championship in December last year was the biggest proof, as he took over the role of India's face in chess from Viswanathan Anand. With FIDE forced to make fresh changes, particularly due to the huge lack of interest for the classical chess format from fans, modern-day chess fans have shown more interest in the shorter formats, and have expressed more curiosity for innovative modifications. On February 7, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will make its debut at the Weissenhaus Resort in Wangels, Germany. The first leg of the series will also see the likes of Gukesh, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Vincent Keymer in action.

Chess fans were excited with the prospect of Gukesh taking on Viswanathan Anand, who was in the roster initially. But the India legend withdrew recently amid FIDE's ongoing feud with Freestyle Chess Players' Club (FCPC). The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is co-owned by Carlsen, along with German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, and the FCPC was recently officially recognised by FIDE, but the bone of contention was about the use of the 'world championship' name. Until now, both parties are yet to reach an agreement with FIDE over the use of the title, but they seem to be heading towards a common understanding, as revealed by Buettner, in an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times.

Also Read: ‘I noticed D Gukesh… He was 12 then…’: Magnus Carlsen spills the beans on discovering India No. 1 for the first time

Buettner expects to reach an agreement with FIDE by Monday evening, latest, and during the interview, revealed that he had just spoken to FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich. He expects to be able to introduce a Freestyle World Chess Championship this year itself, but also mentioned that it is not of utmost importance. The final leg of the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam takes place in South Africa, which by default will decide the best player at the tournament, on the basis of points.

"It was not the initial goal. The initial goal was to hold Grand Slams. Then at the end of the year, the player with the most points is the world champion, so we are not actually having a game to decide that. We are having a world championship tournament, where basically one of the players becomes the freestyle world champ. So that has been our previous goal. But if we reach this deal with the FIDE right now, then we will officially call the whole thing a world championship," he said.

Viswanathan Anand's sudden withdrawal

Anand's withdrawal came as a surprise for fans, but it was also on expected lines, considering his role as FIDE deputy president. The 55-year-old also fell victim to criticism from Carlsen during the year-ending Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York in December. After his jeans controversy, Carlsen lashed out at Anand and felt that he was suitable for his role as FIDE deputy president. Anand's decision to pull out has also left fans wondering if he will participate in the other tournaments of the Freestyle Grand Slam or is a total withdrawal.

Spilling the beans on the five-time World Chess Champion's decision, Buettner pointed out that it was his personal decision to give Anand a wildcard to participate in the Freestyle Tour. However, the recent developments between FIDE and FCPC, further fuelled by Carlsen's comments, played a huge factor in his decision to withdraw, according to the Freestyle Chess co-owner. Straightforward with his explanation, he further claimed that Anand would not be given another wildcard, and would have to qualify if he wished to participate in the future.

"First of all, we have to see under which qualification criteria Vishy was invited. So as he didn't meet the criteria of being one of the top-3 players of the world, being top three finishers of a Grand Slam, having won a qualification tournament, he was invited by me with a wildcard for that tournament," said Buettner.

"I can tell you of course if I invite somebody once with a wild card and then he accepts and then he declines you know it's very unlikely that he will see a right wildcard again in the same year. So basically if he doesn't qualify for some of the criteria which are laid out in our rules and regulations then he will not participate. But it's not that we don't want him, it's basically because of his decision.

"Now, to the reason. Vishy, as you know, is a very friendly, very nice person, a very humble person. I like him very much. We have a very good relationship and we also met personally in London and we had lunch and so on. He was very happy to come. On the other hand, he is, of course, in the position of FIDE deputy president. Yes, which, you know, I don't want to judge, but I think it was not the wisest decision of him to do that because, you know, if I'm 60 years old, when you look at what you have achieved and done and so on, there are some things that are, you know, associated with more risk than reward to do something, right? And so with his status as like the grand senior, the maker of Indian chess, the world champion, I think it would been better for himself to not take an official position with FIDE, because then now all of a sudden, he is no all longer seen as the wonderful, beautiful, Vishy Anand, that he is, but he is seen as a representative of that organization and basically has to stand for whatever they do, we don't even know if he stands behind it.

"So then we had this incident in New York, as you know, as well as I do, where I was not even present. I was in Miami at that time, so I had nothing to do. I also just read it in the press. But basically, if you just look at everything that happened and especially look at what Magnus basically said, was not so nice. So, of course, that was not very beneficial. So this is one thing. The second thing being that this whole tension between FIDE and us developed. And although we might have resolved it by now, but it was big. And we can only resolve it because we have, of course, the threats of big lawsuits. So it's always like once you reach a deal or a term negotiation you always have to be strong on your position and then you are also reaching your position in the agreement but that was not visible then and also indeed taking his personality, which he was not suited to, kind of be in the middle of it. So you know, he saw himself as one being an official of FIDE, second already being a named player for the tournament and he felt very uncomfortable, he told me, to be in that position and he rather said, I'm going to step away from the tournament rather than just being in the middle of the whole thing before this even escalates or whatever. So then he told us his decision that he would step away from the Grand Slam. We gave him the wildcard and we tried to convince him otherwise.

"I said, you know, would it help maybe if Magnus apologised and also of course I can't influence Magnus or whatever he does but basically what I also said what I said initially I have no intention of putting salt into the wound of FIDE by running around and calling it a world championship. So I told Vishy, come to the Grand Slam, it's a Grand Slam and if we will have a world champion we will find out in December, it's still 11 months from now, so there's a lot of time where we can do something and then he thought about it back and forth and then he said in the end, he wouldn't do it and it's okay. So you know, basically it's a friendly stepping away and then we looked who can we replace him with and now we replaced him with the runners-up in the online qualification which is Uzbek Sindarov (Javokhir) which we are very happy to have because now we have two Uzbek players, which now even leads for the Uzbekistan prime minister. He is looking into visiting Weissenhaus right now because he has two players from his country."

Delhi to be removed from Freestyle Grand Slam Tour schedule?

Delhi has also been picked as one of the host cities for the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour with the Indian leg scheduled between September 17 and 24. But according to recent reports, there has been a lack of interest from investors for the Indian leg. Buettner went on to reveal that other countries have instead offered to host the Grand Slam Tour and feels the lack of interest from Indian investors could be due to the ongoing tussle between FIDE and FCPC, which he expects to resolve soon.

"So all of this is kind of like in limbo. And that's the only event that has nothing to do with us lacking the funding but from a strategy point of view and from a focus point of view and what we deem important and as long as we have to fund the events totally by ourselves we rather go where either we get some money or we have a strategic advantage or we basically know the place. So that is basically the situation of today," he said.

Freestyle Grand Slam Tour: Financial future

Just like how the Indian Premier League and other similar private tournaments took some time to generate revenue, Buettner also expects it to be the same for Freestyle Chess. "So at this point, we are still taking on additional money. There's significant interest from other parties investing. So to this point, we have taken in $15 million. And we are still discussing with investors for more than 5 to 6 million. So we might take in even up to 20 million right now because my goal is to do this one funding round and that's it. I want to go to profitability with that money so that we don't have to go fundraising again. And we have a plan that basically generally says, in 2025, 50% of our cost basis for the Grand Slams will be covered by external money. In 2026, 100% of the events will be covered by external money. And as of 2027, we're going to break even and profitable because we also have our overhead. And along this, we are fine with like $20 million. We will reach that goal easily. And that is basically our plan at this point," he said.

Similarities with LIV Golf

The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour has some similarities to the LIV Golf Tour, or even slightly with the new UEFA Champions League format. Giving some insight into the format, Buettner said, "It is basically the professional players, where only the top-seeded ones participate and there's a proper qualification for the others. I think this is at the core of what we are discussing with FIDE right now and also an internal request that we find the perfect mix of seeding the top players, always making sure that the top players are participating because they are driving the audience. This is also why we for example guaranteed a seat for the reigning world champion at every single tournament and that's the only player who is kind of seeded that way, not even Magnus Carlsen is seeded that way. But of course due to his position as one of the top three players in the world, being one of the top three guys in a grandstand."

"This is basically part of what we are right now changing somehow and adapting somehow to our discussions with FIDE. But in the end, have like a 50-50 mix of seeded-top players and complete it with open tournament possibility also for people to join in so they can accumulate Grand Slam points. So that at the end of the year in South Africa we are having a tournament with the 12 players who have accumulated the most Grand Slam points. The one with the most points altogether in all tournaments after South Africa is the world champion; that's the way we operate."

After the German leg, the next Grand Slam will be held in Paris and is scheduled for April 8-15. It will be followed by the North American leg in New York (July 17-24). After New York, Delhi was initially expected to host the next tournament, but the current situation doesn't seem ideal for it to happen in India. Meanwhile, the final leg, where the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour could go down the wire, will be held in Cape Town, South Africa (December 5-12).