The gulf between the Freestyle Chess project and FIDE has grown even wider. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (Norsk rikskringkasting, or NRK for short) has published a article reporting on the situation at the end of January. NRK quotes Jan Buettner responding to a press release from FIDE, in which it threatened legal action:
I think it’s incredibly stupid. I saw it coming, so it wasn’t a surprise, but still stupid.
You can’t abuse a dominant market position and blackmail people. It’s not legal.”
The Hamburg entrepreneur is of the opinion that FIDE, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, is subject to Swiss law and is attempting to impose a monopoly position.
The Freestyle Players Circle includes, among others, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. Both have – obviously… – expressed their disapproval of the FIDE declaration. Carlsen had briefly commented on FIDE’s action in a interview at a games fair in Barcelona. As for Nakamura, he emphatically declared in one of his “>streams:
It’s a threat. A direct threat. This is bad. Really bad. It’s blackmail pure and simple, there’s no better word for it.
In response to an investigation by NRK, FIDE refuted the allegations made by Nakamura and Büttner in a lengthy letter, from which NRK extracted the following points and quote:
- FIDE is not making any new demands of the players.
- The clause in question, which mentions non-participation for four years in alternative world championships, has been included in all contracts for major FIDE events since reunification (after Kasparov’s split in the 1990s)
- “The claim that this is ‘blackmail’ is misleading, as these agreements were signed by the players and are standard practice in sports management to maintain the integrity and credibility of the championship system.”
- Carlsen and Nakamura still have valid contracts with FIDE.
The crux of the controversy is the status of the Freestyle Chess Tour. The tour is called Freestyle Chess Grand Slam and the organizers aim to award the winner the title of “Freestyle Chess World Champion”. According to Buettner, FIDE has requested a “royalty” of $500,000. Freestyle Chess would have been prepared to pay $100,000 to sponsor FIDE tournaments, but FIDE found this insufficient.
Emil Sutovsky’s reaction on X
When one sees public rhetoric coming from Freestyle Chess leaders, it becomes clear, that the project is bound to fail.
“F U”, “They are so stupid”, “Horse sh.t” etc.
And why all that? Because you want your private project to be called World Championship? Instead of finding a…
– Emilchess (@EmilSutovsky) January 28, 2025
It’s clear from the public rhetoric of Freestyle Chess that the project is doomed to failure.
“F U”, “They’re so stupid”, “Horse shit”, etc.
And why all this? Because you want your private project to be called a World Championship? Instead of finding a way to collaborate with several major organizers to align the calendar, as we proposed for the benefit of players and fans.
So to spice things up, you’re launching a campaign denigrating classical/regular chess, orchestrating media publications and adding a touch of personal attacks?
That’s not the way to win hearts or money. And money is by far the main objective of this commercial project.
This isn’t the way to address the chess community either: you can hire lawyers and try to convince certain players to violate their commitments. But on the whole, it won’t work – especially if you have nothing of lasting value to offer. And chess players know that FIDE keeps its promises and will continue to do so.
And you neglect the whole chess society to focus on the interests of a few – and go to war demanding that your project be called the World Championship?
All these (and more) are signs of an attitude that will lead to failure.
FIDE is known for its willingness to be attentive and flexible, and to reach out to partners and especially players – something that has been misinterpreted as a weakness.
The “I’m bigger than FIDE” concept didn’t even work with Fischer and Kasparov – who tried it as reigning world champions, when they actually dominated their rivals at the time. Of course, the public may initially support a superstar against the Federation. And you can attract a few naive investors. But this is not sustainable – and we’ve seen many examples of this.
Today, FIDE is probably in the best position it’s ever been – and the chess community sees it: we’re running an unprecedented number of projects around the world, we’re constantly increasing prizes for top players and support for educational and social programs, and we can plan far ahead thanks to our partnerships in the East and West.
We would be delighted to collaborate with any private project – especially ambitious ones.
But if you want war – you’ve got it.
– Emilchess (@EmilSutovsky) January 28, 2025
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