Freestyle

Magnus Carlsen’s run of nine straight wins at the Grenke Freestyle Open was, even by his own standards, extraordinary. The world no. 1 is a zealous advocate for freestyle chess, in which the pieces on the first rank are placed in one of 960 possible configurations at the start of the game. The format has been tested in a series of elite events, but the Grenke Open – held in Karlsruhe over the Easter weekend – was one of very few freestyle events open to players of all levels.

Based on the standard of Carlsen’s opposition (which included seven grandmasters), he would have expected to score 7/9 in normal chess (perhaps five wins and four draws). But the uncharted format makes it hard to compare his 9/9 score with historical precedents. It certainly testifies to the claim that freestyle chess maximises the scope for a stronger player to impose their skill, by forcing players to think on their feet from the very first move.

One of the greatest tournament performances of all time was Bobby Fischer’s perfect score (11 straight wins) at the 1963/64 US championship. In my view, Carlsen faced significantly stronger opposition than Fischer, though he won fewer games. At any rate, Fischer’s record is unlikely to ever be equalled in the US championship. Fabiano Caruana, for many years the world no. 2, won the last three editions, but never won more than half the games, so high is the standard now. Caruana himself has a strong claim to the best tournament performance of all time, when he began the Sinquefield Cup in 2014 with seven consecutive wins against the world elite (including Carlsen) before drawing his final three games to finish on 8.5/10.

The game below had as a start position: Ra1, Nb1, Bc1, Kd1, Qe1, Bf1, Rg1, Nh1. Black’s setup mirrors that: Ra8, Nb8, etc.