Hamburg, February 19, 2026 — FIDE and Freestyle Chess will return the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championships to Weissenhaus, Germany, in 2027, keeping the Baltic Sea venue that hosted the inaugural edition this year.
Upcoming Championships and Format
The Women’s FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship is scheduled for three days on the first weekend of February 2027, with the open world championship to follow over three days on the second weekend of the month. Organizers coordinated the format and dates to align with the wider international chess calendar and maintain a consistent knockout structure.
This decision follows the first official FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship held in February 2026, where Magnus Carlsen of Norway claimed the title by defeating the United States’ Fabiano Caruana 2.5–1.5 in the final. As 2026 finalists, Carlsen and Caruana have secured places in the 2027 event, and Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov qualified directly by finishing third. In the women’s pathway, Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva earned a 2027 berth by winning a 2026 exhibition match against Switzerland’s Alexandra Kosteniuk.
By continuing in Weissenhaus, organizers aim to establish a permanent home for the Freestyle world title, citing stable conditions for a compact, top-level knockout competition and consistent standards from year to year. The partnership between FIDE and Freestyle Chess, formalized ahead of the 2026 edition, designates the championship as an official world title and sets out multi-year planning intended to give players, organizers, and partners greater certainty while integrating the format into the global schedule.
The championship cycle will feature qualifying events, with the next confirmed stop being the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open in Karlsruhe, Germany, from April 2 to 6, 2026. For the first time, that tournament will serve as an official qualifier for the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Freestyle Chess is also known as Chess960 or Fischer Random. The current world championship continues FIDE’s earlier Fischer Random events held in 2019 and 2022, further establishing its place in the chess community and increasing interest among players and fans alike.