Good Keymer

Freestyle Chess (also known as Fischer-Random, Chess960, or Chess9LX), is the variant in which pieces on the back row are shuffled in one of 960 configurations at the start of the game. Until now, it has been regarded as a novelty. Standard chess offers a great starting position, in that there are countless ways to develop harmony between the pieces. But elite players have studied this phase in depth, and it is rare that they face any truly novel problems in the opening phase.

Freestyle Chess is arguably a more stringent test of skill than the standard game, because players cannot rely on their memory. Even for elite players, the first few moves require deep thought, and it is fascinating to watch them striving to coordinate their jumbled pieces.

The first event in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam series, held at the Weissenhaus luxury resort near Hamburg, had a surprise winner in the young German grandmaster Vincent Keymer, who defeated Carlsen in the semifinal (see below) and Caruana in the final.

The game below had as its start position: Na1, Bb1, Rc1, Kd1, Be1, Rf1, Qg1, Nh1. Black’s setup mirrors that: Na8, Bb8, Rc8, etc.

Vincent Keymer-Magnus Carlsen

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, Weissenhaus, 2025

1 g4 Ng6 2 Nb3 e5 3 Ng3 The cheeky 3 Nc5 (or 3 Na5) already comes into consideration, but Black could respond by castling queenside (!) – see the note to the fourth move. f6 4 c4 O-O-O Freestyle castling rules are peculiar. Here, the Black king moves from d8 to c8 and the rook moves from c8 to d8, i.e. they simply swap places. 5 d4 Nb6 6 d5 d6 7 Bf5+ Bd7 8 f3 a6 9 e4 Nf4 10 Bxd7+ Rxd7 11 Kc2 If Keymer had castled queenside, swapping the places of the king and rook just as Carlsen did on move 4, 11…Nxc4 was a good response.