World number-one Magnus Carlsen has now won 21 official FIDE world championship titles after defeating GM Fabiano Caruana in the Final of the 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. We take a look back at the intense three-day event in Weissenhaus, Germany and draw some conclusions.
- Number 21 And Counting For Magnus Carlsen
- Caruana Still Hunting 1st Title, But It Was Close
- Abdusattorov’s Speed Almost Paid Off
- Niemann Misses Out After Brutal First Day
- What A Difference 2 Months Made For Sindarov And Aronian
- Long Days Could Have Been Longer, But We Dodged Armageddon
- Freestyle Chess Is Here To Stay
1. Number 21 And Counting For Magnus Carlsen
It’s less than two months since Carlsen won double-gold in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha to make it 20 world championship titles in his career.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
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🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/AvmmRJ0xSs
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) December 30, 2025
He took time out to win a fifth Speed Chess Championship before making it 21 titles, and a first in Freestyle Chess. For his celebratory post, he switched from quoting Einstein to referencing a viral meme.
what’s 9+10 pic.twitter.com/bimf5gaeJg
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) February 16, 2026
The 21 is made up of:
- 5 Classical World Championships: 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021
- 6 Rapid World Championships: 2014, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025
- 9 Blitz World Championships: 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 (shared with GM Ian Nepomniachtchi), 2025
- 1 Freestyle Chess World Championship: 2026
It was a richly deserved victory, with Carlsen winning the Round-Robin and losing only once in 15 games in Weissenhaus, a blowout against GM Arjun Erigaisi.
Carlsen kept up an overall high level of play even when in deep trouble on the board or on the clock, and was rewarded with $100,000—small change when compared to the prizes on offer for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in 2025, but made up for by the prize of an official title.
“It feels great to win, but I still feel like I can do even better!” said Carlsen, whose appetite for titles will include the new Total Chess World Championship, a combined classical, rapid, and blitz series set for 2027, with a pilot event this year.
It feels great to win, but I still feel like I can do even better!
—Magnus Carlsen
2. Caruana Still Hunting 1st Title, But It Was Close
Caruana’s hunt for a first official world championship title goes on after heartbreak in the final match. The world number-three drew comfortably in the first game, missed winning chances in the second game, and was then gifted an overwhelming advantage in game three. There were countless ways to put a stake through Carlsen’s heart, but Caruana lamented, “I just didn’t choose any of them.”
The world number-one dug deep, posed problems, and ultimately pulled off a hugely unlikely win. You can relive that drama below.
So instead of needing only a draw in the final game to clinch the title, Caruana found himself in a must-win situation. To his credit, he got some chances at the end, but Carlsen held a draw to clinch the title.
“It’s a very short event, so probably all I’ll remember is the last match,” said Caruana, though before that he had plenty to be proud of. After two losses in a row in the group stage he won on demand against Arjun to reach the Semifinals, where he also hit back in the final game after a comeback from GM Vincent Keymer.
Caruana is a player worthy of a world championship title, but it’s been an era when Carlsen has left only scraps from his table for the others to fight over.
GM Gukesh Dommaraju and GM Ding Liren have earned the classical title (but only after Carlsen withdrew), while the other titles have been sprinkled thinly: one Fischer Random title each for GMs Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura, one blitz title for GMs Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Nepomniachtchi, and one rapid title for GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov among Carlsen’s current rivals. We have to go back to the semi-retired GM Viswanathan Anand for a player even in the same ballpark when it comes to titles won.
3. Abdusattorov’s Speed Almost Paid Off
The one player whose success in the last few months rivals Carlsen’s is Abdusattorov, with the 21-year-old Uzbek star emerging from a tough period with dominant victories in the London Chess Classic and the Tata Steel Chess Masters.
The confidence those wins brought was visible in his speed of play in Weissenhaus, which could easily have been decisive. In game three of the Semifinals, he had three minutes and 33 seconds to Carlsen’s 36 seconds in a double-edged position, but over-pushed and lost. Then in the final game, which on the board largely went Carlsen’s way, Abdusattorov at one point had nine minutes and one second against just 20 seconds for the Norwegian. Carlsen admitted one surprise might have left him helpless, but none came.
The speed did pay off in the third-place match, however, with Keymer twice missing wins when under pressure on the clock. As Carlsen put it, Abdusattorov is a player who “gets stronger and stronger every time I play him.”
4. Niemann Misses Out After Brutal First Day
The one player other than Carlsen to win both knockout matches (vs. Aronian and Arjun), and in very convincing fashion, was GM Hans Niemann, but that was only enough for fifth place and $25,000, since he’d failed to finish in the top half of the round-robin. He’d ended only half a point short of three players who did qualify, after beating Arjun and Abdusattorov but losing to Caruana and Keymer.
Carlsen had commented in the opening press conference, “I like the fact that it’s cut-throat and it’s not going to be easy to come through for anybody,” but with margins so thin it could be questioned whether the stakes should be so high for the opening day.
We saw varying formats on the previous year’s tour—for instance, Carlsen could only play for third place after finishing fifth on the opening day in Las Vegas, while for the final event in South Africa, no one was eliminated after the round-robin, which only decided pairings.
5. What A Difference 2 Months Made For Sindarov And Aronian
It’s a curiosity that the top-three players after the round-robin in South Africa were the same to occupy the last three spots in Weissenhaus.
In 2025, Aronian went on to win the $200,000 top prize in South Africa, defeating Carlsen in the final and adding to his victory in Las Vegas, while Sindarov narrowly lost to Carlsen in the Semifinals.
What had changed between the two events? Curiously both players gave almost the same answer. Aronian: “I’m just out of practice—I haven’t played for two months and this is the result.”
Only the time scale was different, with Sindarov saying he hadn’t looked at chess, even to do some puzzles, since coming second in Wijk aan Zee: “The last 10 days I did nothing, and that’s my big mistake before this tournament!”
The last 10 days I did nothing, and that’s my big mistake before this tournament!
—Javokhir Sindarov
6. Long Days Could Have Been Longer, But We Dodged Armageddon
The three-day event was the intense conclusion of a format that had been shrinking since it began in Weissenhaus and Paris last year with classical chess and eight days of action. The broadcast on the first day of the world championship ran to over eight hours, with the new positions each round burning time, but it might have been an even more grueling day. Going into the last round, we could have had a four-way tie for the qualification spots, which would have meant an extra armageddon round-robin.
We dodged that bullet, and remarkably almost avoided armageddon completely, with all the knockout matches decided in 25+10 chess except for one, the Sindarov-Aronian match for seventh place. FIDE has generally moved to armageddon with increment to avoid what we saw at the end of that dramatic game, with Sindarov failing to put his pieces clearly on squares, Aronian complaining, and the Uzbek star generously resigning rather than going for controversy.
Levon Aronian misses mate-in-1 but eventually wins a wild Armageddon game against Javokhir Sindarov to take 7th place! https://t.co/JUukrRBgbj pic.twitter.com/wHQd6z0duL
— chess24 (@chess24com) February 15, 2026
That didn’t extend the final day, however, since the fifth and seventh place finals were held over two games rather than four.
7. Freestyle Chess Is Here To Stay
It’s not currently clear how Freestyle Chess will develop this year—if we’ll have a full tour or not—but what is already decided is to hold another world championship in 2027. Carlsen, Caruana, and Abdusattorov have already qualified as the top-three finishers this time, one player will come from the Chess.com Freestyle Friday series, and one player will make it from the one over-the-board Freestyle Chess event already confirmed for this year—the Grenke Freestyle Open.
That event in Karlsruhe, Germany this Easter (April 2-6) overlaps with the FIDE Candidates Tournament but already has an impressive list of registered players, including Carlsen, who literally can’t improve on his 9/9 last year.
Top-15 Players Registered For Grenke Freestyle Open
| # | FED | Player | Freestyle Rating | Classical Rating |
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2887 | 2840 | |
| 2 | Vincent Keymer | 2780 | 2776 | |
| 3 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2697 | 2751 | |
| 4 | Leinier Dominguez | 2731 | 2738 | |
| 5 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2700 | 2734 | |
| 6 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 0 | 2731 | |
| 7 | Levon Aronian | 2786 | 2729 | |
| 8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2771 | 2726 | |
| 9 | Hans Niemann | 2722 | 2725 | |
| 10 | Awonder Liang | 2680 | 2719 | |
| 11 | Nihal Sarin | 0 | 2716 | |
| 12 | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2687 | 2708 | |
| 13 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 2716 | 2704 | |
| 14 | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2707 | 2700 | |
| 15 | Amin Tabatabaei | 2661 | 2700 |
Carlsen and Abdusattorov already being qualified means it’s a good chance for the other players to grab a spot, while the top-three women there will already qualify for a FIDE Women’s Freestyle Chess World Championship planned to be held this year. They’ll join GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who has already booked a spot after defeating GM Alexandra Kosteniuk 2.5-1.5 in the exhibition match in Weissenhaus.
After we went four years from 2022-2026 without an official world champion being crowned in Chess960 it looks like the format is back to stay.
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