Kuala Lampur, Feb. 12 -- A few days ago, there was an announcement that the world's highest rated chess player Magnus Carlsen had just defeated the newly crowned world champion Gukesh Dommaraju.

Like almost every chess enthusiast, I was ecstatic... until I found out they were playing in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, Weissenhaus 2025 tournament.

Potong stim!

Freestyle chess? Yeah.

First developed by American world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996, freestyle chess (or Chess960 or Chess360 or Fischer Random Chess) is where the pieces on the back rank are randomly rearranged at the starting point.

Example: Your Queen can be placed next to the Rook, the King can be next to the Bishop, etc.

Every other rule remains the same; all pie...