German multimillionaire Jan Henric Buettner is starting a new chess tournament series together with superstar Magnus Carlsen. The tournaments feature Chess960, which the organizers call Freestyle Chess.
At the beginning of the game, the pieces are not in the classic formation on the home row; their positions are drawn beforehand. 960 different basic positions are possible, making the opening knowledge from classic chess useless. Further Grand Slams are currently planned for summer, autumn and winter 2025 in New York, Colombia and Cape Town, South Africa.