Sunday, February 25, 2024

From Dawn to Noon

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen’s imperious victory last week in the first-ever Fischerandom chess (chess960) super-tournament at classical time control has put Fischer’s chess into the spotlight and its billionaire sponsor, Jan Henric Buettner, is more than ever inclined to export the revolution all over the five continents next year. As Leonard Barden wrote in his column in The Guardian of February 23, 2024, “Buettner’s plan is a Freestyle elite eight-GM invitation in India late in 2024, followed by a five-continent global Tour in 2025, and including a new four-player women’s tournament. Weissenhaus had a $200,000 (£158,000) prize fund, but even that may be just the start, as Buettner has stated that his ambition is for $1m for each of the continental knockouts”.

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