Dutch GM Anish Giri shared his thoughts on the trend of chess players shifting their focus from Classical to Rapid, Blitz, and Freestyle in an interview on the YouTube channel “Chess with Mustreader” on January 19. Giri noted that players have come to perceive Classical chess as boring, and also spoke about similar thoughts in his career.

Anish Giri

Anish Giri

Dutch GM

“Shifting to Rapid and Blitz is a common path for players nowadays. They just shift and don’t even say that they retire from Classical. They say Rapid and Blitz is the way to play anyway, and now Classical is the boring one.

Shifting to freestyle is not yet feasible. There’s not enough infrastructure there, and no reliable one.

Before my rating dip, I had a thought for a moment that maybe I should switch to just Rapid and Blitz. Looking back, I realized — that was a warning. If you have that thought — something is wrong with your performance in Classical. I had that thought and my next tournament was really bad. Then I had the motivation to come back.

For me, it’s not easy. Throughout my recent few years, there were moments when I had that thought to just play Rapid and Blitz and give up on the Classical. But now that’s obviously not the case with the Candidates tournament.”

Dutch GM Anish Giri’s Classical rating (2760) fell from the high 2700s in 2021 to the low 2700s within 3 years. His rating began to rise in 2024, and Giri qualified for the 2026 Candidates by winning the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss.