After 1,000 years, chess could be changed for ever by the Carlsen gambit

Starting positions are randomised in Magnus Carlsen's freestyle chess. It's about beating the bots and bringing back the magic, he tells Xavier Greenwood

- Xavier Greenwood

Glamour may not be the word that springs to mind when you imagine a chess competition.

But it's fitting for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of tournaments that took place for the first time in 2025. Eschewing the stuffy halls and men-in-suits image of the classical chess circuit, games on the tour have been held in a lavish Las Vegas ballroom, on a 130ft yacht in Singapore and at a five-star hotel overlooking Cape Town's Table Mountain.

Among the events on offer in South Africa was diving chess, played at the bottom of the hotel pool - magnets kept the pieces and board in place. The world's top chess players made their moves while holding their breath, before swimming back to the surface to gasp for air. Fabiano Caruana, the third highest-rated grandmaster in history, says half an hour played beneath the surface is more exhausting than seven on a normal board. He didn't ultimately win the diving chess title; that went to fellow American Hans Niemann.

The underwater games were not the only spectacle. Elsewhere, players reflected on performances in a confession booth, and monitors showed their cardiac activity as they competed. Beyond the gimmicks, the existence of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam points to a bigger battle for the soul of the game.

Fide, the official governing body of chess, even threatened legal action against Freestyle Chess, the upstart organisation behind the tour, forcing it to drop the label "World Championship" from its events.

The struggle between traditionalism and innovation has been precipitated by drastic technological changes. Chess today is surging in popularity, thanks to the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit, media personalities and access to 24/7 online play. The site chess.com has more than 230 million members, while YouTube videos featuring Magnus Carlsen, the highest-rated player of all time, regularly attract millions of views.