Chess legend Magnus Carlsen, investor Jan Henric Buettner, VC Left Lane Capital, launch new company to revolutionize professional chess

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Jul 25, 2024, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK and HAMBURG, Germany, July 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Freestyle Chess, a groundbreaking new venture founded by Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner, announced today that it is raising €10 million in funding from Left Lane Capital. This significant investment will be used to establish a leading tournament series that aims to revolutionize the world of chess.

The event series will showcase the world's best chess players, each with compelling stories, in a completely new and attractive format for media, spectators, and consumers. The 25 Super Grand Masters currently representing the total of the Freestyle Chess Players Club all have an ELO rating above 2725. The world's top-players will be front and center to this new, mass-market-oriented chess series, where nine Super Grand Masters are handpicked by Magnus Carlsen, who has committed himself to playing Freestyle Chess exclusively at the Grand Slam series. All tournaments will be held in exclusive venues with an aura of luxury and style, with all games played according to chess960 rules. Freestyle Chess already had a tournament in February as a blueprint that set the bar high.

The company will organize six to eight Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tournaments per year across all continents, introducing Freestyle Chess as an exciting new global event series. The prize funding for the tournaments that will be distributed among the players has been set to $750,000 for each of the first three events, and $1 million for every tournament thereafter. Freestyle Chess maintains the core elements of traditional chess but with a twist: the back row is randomized. This setup is Fischer Random and adds new strategic elements and unpredictability to the game, fostering a fresh era of competitive play.

"Chess needs to evolve into a more dynamic and captivating spectacle, one that allows players to showcase their skills from the first move," says Magnus Carlsen, Co-founder of Freestyle Chess, who has been instrumental in shaping the format for Freestyle Chess competitions. "Modern chess variants like Fischer Random will define the future of chess, which needs to evolve to more thrilling gameplay."

Jan Henric Buettner and Magnus Carlsen are opening up a new chapter in the history of chess. Jan Henric Buettner, German Entrepreneur, founded and led AOL Europe in the mid-1990's and started Headline VC where he managed over a billion euros in startup investments, including GoTo Meeting, Groupon, and Sonos. His co-founder, Magnus Carlsen, a chess prodigy, became a grandmaster at the age of 13 and has held the number one spot in the FIDE world chess rankings since 2011. He is considered one of the greatest chess players of all time.

Harley Miller, CEO and Managing Partner of Left Lane Capital, recognizes the immense potential of this innovative chess format and remarked, "Any time you have the best athletes in the world competing at the absolute highest standard of play, coupled with more avant garde storytelling and showmanship, you inherently will build something of great consequence. Freestyle Chess has the potential to become a mainstream sporting spectacle, akin to Formula 1, or ATP Tennis."

This new capital will be used to fuel the development of Freestyle Chess, organize and host the inaugural Grand Slam tournaments across different continents, enhance the digital experience and develop new product features, hire additional team members across various functions, and increase marketing efforts to grow the reach of the game.

Freestyle Chess: www.freestyle-chess.com

ABOUT LEFT LANE CAPITAL

Founded in 2019, Left Lane Capital is a New York and London-based global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in internet and technology companies with a consumer orientation. Left Lane's mission is to partner with extraordinary entrepreneurs who create category-defining companies across growth sectors of the economy, including software, healthcare, e-commerce, consumer, fintech, medtech, and other industries. Select investments include Kings League, LOVB, Bilt Rewards, Blank Street, M1 Finance, Wayflyer, Masterworks, Talkiatry, Kittl, and more. For more information, please visit www.leftlane.com.

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SOURCE Left Lane Capital