I know it's a spicy topic lol
In a feat that's already making waves around the chess world,
Magnus Carlsen once again reminded us why he's considered one of the greatest geniuses of the chessboard. This time, the stage was the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open 2025, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, where the Norwegian achieved a rarely seen feat:
winning all 9 games of a Swiss tournament!!!!! with classical time control, facing a lineup full of grandmasters.
Yes, 9 out of 9.
And not in a minor or rapid tournament, but in a serious event, with a classical format, and under the rules of Chess960 or random chess, which means the pieces are placed in unconventional starting positions.
This eliminates the possibility of memorizing openings and forces players to improvise from the very first move.
In other words: only the true titans of calculation and creativity win here.
A tournament designed for equality… unless Carlsen plays
The idea of Freestyle Chess is to level the playing field. Without prior theoretical preparation, everyone starts from scratch. But Carlsen showed that, even without opening books, his intuition, vision, and positional understanding are still on another level. He beat seven grandmasters, including renowned names like Étienne Bacrot and Vincent Keymer, and did so without even conceding a draw.
This opens up the debate (one that, for me, has been closed for a long time): Is Carlsen the greatest of all time?
I think the answer has been yes for some time now.
I look forward to your comments