"It was a mistake in the beginning of Freestyle Chess to create a system only around Magnus..." — Jan Henric Buettner

Jan Henric Buettner

Freestyle Chess Co-Founder

“The business aspect was that we built this tour around Magnus personally. And I think we overestimated the level of commitment that he would have personally to this one. This is why we had to pivot the whole tour not around him. Which was originally the idea.

The first event was actually called The GOAT Challenge — The Greatest of All Time Challenge. So, making it like a tour where it’s around one person and he is challenged by the other ones was not really in his interest obviously.

So, we said: ‘let’s put it on broader aspects’. And we found young players that have thrived very much.

I think it was an original mistake in the beginning of Freestyle Chess to create a system around one player. And I think, maybe, they make the same mistake with the Total Chess Championship, because you never know how sustainable Magnus’ interest is in the end. But that’s up to them.

But again, I think Total Chess Championship is similar to Freestyle Chess. They have a FIDE title, they can have a World Championship title, but they still need to do their own tournaments.

They have these big ambitions, also with big prize money and so. Like we also did in the beginning with the $750,000 prize. But some people have to come up with this money.

And you have to basically more look to the interests of those suppliers of funding, rather than the players receiving the funding.”