The first official FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship will be held in Weissenhaus, Germany, from February 13 to 15, 2026. The event is governed by FIDE in collaboration with Freestyle Chess Operations GmbH, marking the first joint World Championship title in 960 format under a formal agreement.

Six players have qualified via the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour:

• Magnus Carlsen
• Levon Aronian
• Fabiano Caruana
• Vincent Keymer
• Arjun Erigaisi
• Javokhir Sindarov

Two additional participants selected separately, one by Freestyle Chess and one by FIDE. Freestyle Chess has selected Hans Niemann, while FIDE will determine the eighth participant through an Online Qualification Tournament on Chess.com on January 14–15.

FIDE and Freestyle Chess had a dispute centered on the exclusive right to award an official World Championship Title in the Chess960 format in 2024-2025. The dispute has been resolved after the Freestyle Chess organizers agreed to remove the term “World Championship” from their event regulations in 2025.

Credit: FIDE