Magnus Carlsen has achieved a significant milestone by crossing the 2900 rating threshold in freestyle chess, a feat that had long evaded him in classical chess. No chess player has ever reached this mark before.Carlsen, a five-time world chess champion who has maintained the world number one position for nearly 15 years, previously peaked at 2882 in classical chess during May 2014.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The new freestyle chess ratings, released on Thursday, are compiled by Freestyle Chess organisation rather than FIDE, the global chess governing body.“My wife (Ella Victoria) is way more attracted to me now that I’ve achieved 2900,” Carlsen told Freestyle Chess, joking after learning about his rating.The freestyle ratings were calculated using five tournaments: Weissenhaus 2024, Singapore 2024, Weissenhaus 2025, Paris 2025, and Karlsruhe 2025. The list includes 578 players who participated in at least one freestyle chess event in the past two years.Praggnanandhaa leads Indian players at fourth place with 2773 points, following Carlsen (2909), Hikaru Nakamura (2818), and Fabiano Caruana (2804).
Poll
Which chess format do you prefer to watch?
Other Indian players on the list include Arjun Erigaisi in 8th place with 2758 points, Vidit Santosh Gujarathi at 18th with 2713 points, Aravindh Chithambaram VR at 22nd with 2707 points, and classical world champion Gukesh at 26th with 2701 points.Gukesh’s lower ranking can be attributed to his recent struggles in freestyle chess tournaments.Carlsen has excelled in this format, achieving a perfect score of nine wins in nine games at the Grenke Freestyle Open. His freestyle ELO rating of 2909 surpasses his classical chess rating by 72 points.
Carlsen had previously approached the 2900 mark in classical chess in 2019. During this period, he set another record by playing 125 classical games without defeat between July 2018 and October 2020.“I have given up a bit on trying to reach 2900. It will just be very, very difficult,” Carlsen had stated on the Norwegian podcast Sjakksnakk in 2023.
