Magnus Carlsen had entered the first ever FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship as the tearaway favourite, not just because he is the greatest player of this generation by a country mile but also because of the fact that he had won the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour last year.

And in the end, his triumph over Fabiano Caruana in the final was more or less along expected lines, even if the
Norwegian Grandmaster was made to sweat hard and nearly let the trophy slip out of his grasp at one stage.

Another trophy in Carlsen’s crowded cabinet

Carlsen thus adds another piece of silverware to a trophy cabinet that is already running short of space. After all, his victory in the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship – formerly known as the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship – is the 21st ‘World Championship’ of a career that had attained legendary status long back.

While it further underlines Carlsen’s legacy as one of the greatest to have ever played the game, if not the best, one can’t help but wonder whether chess is starting to go down the cricket route by having too many World Championships in place?

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The popular proverb “too many cooks spoil the broth”, after all, can be applied in the context of sports and showpiece events. Football, for instance, has multiple noteworthy events taking place across the year, but has only one showpiece event – the FIFA World Cup – that takes place every four years.

Rugby Union might have the Six Nations Championship or the Tri Nations Series taking place in the northern and southern hemisphere respectively. But the spotlight remains on the World Cup that, like football, takes place every four years.

Several other sporting disciplines have world championships that take place on an annual or a biennial basis – from badminton hosting it every year except during the Olympics to athletics hosting it every two years. Like football and rugby though, the sanctity of the term ‘World Championship’ is maintained

And then there’s chess and cricket. In the latter’s case, the ICC World Cup was, for the longest time, the crown jewel of the sport as far as global tournaments were concerned. And while it remains the pinnacle of the sport, the introduction of the T20 World Cup in 2007 and the World Test Championship has somewhat watered down the ‘World Championship’ aspect of the sport.

Too many world championships hurting chess? 

And in chess, that crown jewel status belongs to the FIDE World Championship, a tournament that has formally been in existence for nearly eight decades now, with informal matches having taken place even earlier. The Rapid and Blitz worlds are a recent phenomenon and have been jointly organised annually since 2012, but didn’t quite take the sheen off the Classical World Championship.

With the inaugural FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship and the soon-to-be-launched
Total Chess World Championship – a joint-venture between FIDE and Norway Chess – it would be safe to state that the sport has a bit of a ‘World Championship’ overkill at the moment.

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It is of course in the interest of every sports governing body – whether FIDE, ICC or FIFA – to host more events. More events translates to more revenue – especially through the broadcast rights and advertising – and can also be seen as beneficial for players as it provides them more opportunities to prove themselves on the field.

And Carlsen, for one, will not be complaining about competing in these events, especially since he’s semi-retired from the Classical format. The trophy and a fat pay cheque is only fair for someone who has ruled chess for over a decade now.

At the same time, it is the responsibility of FIDE and other organisations to preserve the brand value of their key events. And having too many iterations of those can ultimately be detrimental for these events.

Magnus Carlsen added another world title – his 21st to be precise – to his collection on Sunday, defeating Fabiano Caruana to win the inaugural FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship in Weissenhaus, Germany. Carlsen held Caruana to a draw in three out of the four Rapid games and pulled off a dramatic victory in Game 3 to win the final by a 2.5-1.5 scoreline at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort.

The turning point of the contest was in the third 25+10 game, in which Carlsen snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Carlsen was desperately moving his king around for safety after a series of errors, allowing his 33-year-old American opponent to seize control of the game and close in on a victory.

Caruana, however, committed a couple of blunders of his own (32. e4 and 35. Qb3), and a player of Carlsen’s calibre was not going to allow him to wriggle away from that position. The Norwegian Grandmaster ended up winning Game 3 in 37 moves to move into the lead for the first time in the final, and
held on to that lead until the end to be crowned champion.

🇳🇴 Magnus Carlsen is the 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Champion! ♟️🔥

He claims his 21st world title! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/YRBC2GkM5M

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) February 15, 2026

Reacting to the see-saw final against Caruana, Carlsen admitted that he thought the game was over for him at one point.

“I thought that I was doing reasonably well for a long time, and then I missed one of his resources there with knight h4 and I reacted poorly. Usually when you get a completely lost position, it happens gradually. But in this case, I captured his knight and I realised that he has an in between check and I can resign,” Carlsen said in the post-match interview with Freestyle Chess.

“I had a little bit of hope still, but then when he found these very nice moves with king d2 and then f5, I thought this is over. It is a bit strange when it happens so suddenly that you just go from thinking that your position is completely fine and then it’s just lost. You don’t really have that much time to think about what has happened,” he continued.

‘I was smelling blood’

The world No 1 then revealed how Caruana missing a couple of opportunities to seal his victory, allowing him to fight his way back into the game and tilt the balance of the contest in his favour.

“There were a couple of early knockout punches that he missed. When I got in the c3 move, I thought my position has little bit of potential now. I couldn’t see a very clear knockout at that point, and I was hoping he couldn’t either. I thought as soon as he gets very low on time, the quality of his play drops very significantly,” the 35-year-old continued.

“At that point I was hoping I might have a chance, He made a few checks back and forth, it seemed he was getting more and more frustrated. Towards the end, I could have probably forced a draw with the move queen to e6 instead of rook to f8, but at that point, I was smelling blood.

“I’d been on the ropes for this game, and the second game wasn’t easy either, and I just that I’m probably not going to get a better chance than this one. Fortunately he collapsed in a matter of moves there. I’m very happy with that part that I managed to psychologically reset and play for a win when I could,” he added.

🇳🇴 Magnus Carlsen pulls off a stunning save against 🇺🇸 Fabiano Caruana, escaping a dead-lost position and turning the momentum around.

Now he takes the lead — and moves one step closer to a remarkable 21st world title!#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/W0NDc4ORn4

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) February 15, 2026

Carlsen had previously won the FIDE Classical World Championship five times before deciding against defending his title in 2023. He is also the reigning Rapid and Blitz world champion, and has now added a the tag of ‘Freestyle Chess world champion’ following his victory in Weissenhaus.

“It feels great. Obviously the format and everything isn’t too different from what we’ve played on the tour but I’ve had one really, really off day each time in these championships, and I lost soundly to Wesley and then to Ian Nepomniachtchi as well on those days. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t bring the level that I showed yesterday. It feels great to win, but I still feel like I can do even better. But it’s very nice to win,” Carlsen signed off.