Freestyle Chess announced the launch of the first official Freestyle Friday broadcast on May 8. Organizers named the event Freestyle Friday Show.

Commentators for the broadcast are Hungarian GM Peter Leko and actor James Dash. Organizers state the Freestyle Friday Show will run once a month in the future.

Freestyle Friday is a weekly Chess.com event for verified titled players, featuring the Chess960 variant. The event is an 11-round Swiss tournament with a 3+1 time control featuring a $1,000 weekly prize fund.

Average viewership for the first Freestyle Friday Show broadcast is 3,500 on Twitch and 100 on YouTube. Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ukrainian GM Olexandr Bortnyk are among the most-watched regular Freestyle Friday streamers on Twitch. Ian and Olexandr average 800 and 300 concurrent viewers respectively.

Credit: Lennart Ootes / Freestyle Chess