Bengaluru: Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana will face off in a Chess960 match in Singapore on November 21-22, ahead of the World Championship between D. Gukesh and reigning champion Ding Liren. The match is being organized by German entrepreneur Jan Buettner, founder of the Freestyle Chess tournament.

Together with Carlsen, he launched the first tournament in Weisenhauss, Germany, in February this year. In this format (Chess960/Fischer Random), the pieces on the home rank are semi-randomly arranged, promoting less theory and more unconventional play.

The match is likely to take place at night at the Supertree Grove, overlooking Marina Bay Sands.

“It’s going to make for spectacular pictures. We want to make it as big as possible,” Buettner told HT. “Originally, the idea was to have a half-time show during the World Championship, but since Fabiano has other engagements, we decided to push it ahead.”

Carlsen and Caruana previously played each other in the 2018 World Championship match in London, where their classical games ended in 12 consecutive draws. Carlsen won the match in the rapid tie-break, making it one of the closest World Championship encounters in history. Incidentally, the final of the Freestyle GOAT Challenge in Weisenhauss also featured Carlsen and Caruana, which Carlsen won. “Magnus is happy to have a rematch,” said Buettner. “And who can forget the 12 draws at the World Championship between them?”

Next year, Buettner plans to launch a Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour—a series of Chess960 tournaments—across five continents. India is a “likely” destination in Asia, he noted. “We have a couple of other Asian locations like Singapore and Riyadh in mind, but New Delhi is my favourite.”

Just days after the Carlsen-Caruana face-off, Gukesh will aim to become the youngest-ever world chess champion when he faces Ding in a 14-game classical match, starting on November 25. Ding has struggled with form recently and hasn’t secured a classical win in months, while Gukesh performed exceptionally well at the recent Olympiad.

However, Ding brings the experience of having played and won a World Championship match. Gukesh, however ,is considered a strong favourite with world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura recently offering that he “doesn’t see any world where Gukesh doesn’t win.”

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