Chess Club Black & White (CCBW)

Friday, July 26, 2024

€10 Million Funding to Fuel Carlsen's Global Freestyle Chess Revolution

Photo: Free Style Official Website
Chess legend Magnus Carlsen, investor Jan Henric Buettner, VC Left Lane Capital, launch new company to revolutionize professional chess
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.
SOURCE Left Lane Capital

Chess and Ballet: Jason Kouchak's Creative Quest for Rhythm Divine

Renowned French-British musician Jason Kouchak, pioneer of the "Queen's Journey" in conversation with International Arbiter Naveen Karthikeyan


Performing for the 10th anniversary of Judit Polgar’s Global Chess Festival 2024. (c) Photo: Ray Morris-Hill

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière,
(The upside down elephant) (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Take a high-speed train from Paris. Two hours through the scenic French countryside will take you to Lyon — the city founded by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. Stand anywhere in the city. Rising against the skyline will be the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. The locals call this 19th century Cathedral the "upside-down elephant” because of its rounded base and four towers. As a Lyon goné (kid in French), Jason Kouchak was to fall in love with another "elephant" — the Rook on the chessboard. That, though, is only one of his two loves. The other is classical music which took him to London.
"Actually," smiles Kouchak, "The knight's my favourite piece. But then, speaking of aesthetics, the Queen works best for a ballet on the chessboard!"

Jason Kouchak in Holland, London Park 2024. Kouchak shared the cost of the giant chessboard with Kensington and Chelsea council. He says: "I wanted to bring children from various backgrounds together. I wanted people to play each other across the board rather than using their iPhones to play chess."(c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Jason Kouchak and the Royal Ballet. (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Kouchak put it all together by pioneering the artistic concept of "Queen's Journey" in 2016 to encourage women to play chess. The French-British composer, pianist and choreographer can speak forever on the subject: Chess and Ballet are gender neutral activities that connect people through time and space. It improves their generic life skills by developing their spatial awareness, logical thinking and generic life with communication skills. A combination to inspire and inform both sexes of the importance of coordinating together and moving forward into the future. These art forms are a profound medium of communication that have no barriers of language, gender, ethnicity,religion, physical ability or social status. Chess and ballet connect in themes of ‘empowerment’ for women as Queens of power and grace move as pieces across a giant chess board.

The Queen’s Journey has toured in the United Kingdom, France, Hungary and the United States.

Website: Queen's Journey

It all began in childhood. Jason Kouchak says, "My earliest memories of chess were watching my Mum and Dad playing chess whilst listening to classical music. I was intrigued by the shapes and movement of the pieces. I saw the game as a dance, a ballet and a battle."

Today, Kouchak has a list of projects lined up. He's collaborating with the Royal Ballet School in Holland Park, rehearsing for a performance for the 10th anniversary of Judit Polgar’s Global Chess Festival in September 2024 and recording with "my good friend Matt Goss for a new musical in London scheduled for Spring 2025."

Matt Goss (left) and Jason Kouchak (right). (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Where does the fuel for all this creativity come from?

For one, the musician finds inspiration in Nature. He further explains, "One must enjoy the joy of the journey and the spirit within inspiration! One must dare to dream and have the drive and desire to follow those dreams. In essence this sense of fearlessness and fulfilment comes from self-growth and self knowledge.

(Left) With IM Tania Sachdev for whom Kouchak says, "She brings grace and empowerment to chess," and (right) Priyanka Chopra at Kouchak's gaint chess set in Holland Park, London. (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

"It’s important to create new projects and always stay curious. You have to find your inner child. Learning, Living, Laughing and Loving Life is the mantra."

That's pretty Indian. And, yes, Kouchak has met the five-time world champion from India, Viswanathan Anand several times in London and discussed a shared passion — astronomy!

Written in the stars
Here are Kouchak's compositions for the 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to orbit the Earth in a 106-minute flight in a Vostok 1 space capsule. "Music, the stars and chess are magically connected," says Kouchak.

There's more. The Pleiades is a cluster of 1,200 stars in the Milky Way with seven particularly bright stars. In Greek mythology, they became nymphs accompanying the goddess Artemis. On a special request, Kouchak's friend, none other than the great Grandmaster Dr John Nunn, Jason composed a checkmate in three as a chess, astronomy and music project to mark the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2020 bicentenary and the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic space flight. The puzzle reflects the arrangement of the stars in the Pleiades Constellation.

(Left) White to play and checkmate in three (answers at the end) and (right) the Pleiades Constellation. (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Each of the seven stars corresponds to a melodic note in Kouchak’s following musical composition:

The Stars are in My Eyes
- By Jason Kouchak

The stars are in my eyes
A thousand lights above me
Journey to a world still unknown
Where I’m never alone

The stars are in my eyes
Heaven’s high above me
Imagine all the wonders of space
The mystery of another place

Once in a moment beyond your destiny
reaching for answers in dreams you still believe

How does Kouchak pack it all in the same 24 hours that the rest of us have?

Kouchak smiles with his deep, philosophical eyes. A busy day starts with music. He says, "I practice piano as soon as I wake up and create new ideas from my dreams the previous night. Then, either I go for a run or play tennis before returning to my first love the piano.

Jason Kouchak at L’Auditorium de Lyon. (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Jason Kouchak at Abbey Rd Studios London. (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

I play chess online as a breathing space in between music projects. It helps me to distance myself and create perspective for the day. Recording, rehearsing and the realisation of new projects takes up the remainder of the day. Finally, at the end of the day I try to review my actions and reactions and maybe look forward to a new dream.

Where there's music and chess, can literature go missing?

Kouchak's favourite writer is Vladimir Nabokov. Kouchak adds, "Especially his wonderful masterpiece: "Speak, Memory." He loved chess and butterflies which are also two of my passions. I also enjoy reading Vikram Seth, the Indian novelist and poet who I met once in London. He has not only wonderful literary skills but also an impressive knowledge of classical music. His "An Equal Music" is a romantic novel with a beautiful insight into the world of music."

The Boris Spassky Connection

For Kouchak there was never a disconnection between chess and music even when he lost to former world chess champion Boris Spassky. He could not help composing a song!

Jason Kouchak with former world chess champion Boris Spassky. (c) Photo: Jason Kouchak

Completely and happily overwhelmed by this creative genius' thoughts, as I bid adieu, leaving Kouchak to explore further the realms of creative fulfilment, the Frenchman signs off with his favourite poem by none other than Rabindranath Tagore:

Poem On Time

The butterfly counts

not months but moments,

and has time enough.

Time is a wealth of change,

but the clock in its parody

makes it mere change and no wealth.

Let your life lightly dance

on the edges of Time

like dew on the tip of a leaf.

— Rabindranath Tagore

Answer to puzzle by John Nunn (based on an idea by Jason Kouchak and Julian Paix) 1.Bf7! Kf5 2.Bd2! Ke5 3.Rd5#

———

Additional Links:

Ravishanker wins digital detox chess, Samarth Gupta junior champion

Chief Guest 83-year-old senior player and coach RK Gupta from Jhansi with all the prize winners of the two-day digital detox weekend chess hosted by Chess Club Black and White (CCBW) at The Charans Plaza in Lucknow.

Ravishanker scored a perfect 7/7 to win the Two-Day Digital Detox Weekend Chess hosted by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) at The Charans Plaza in Lucknow. Samarth Gupta scored 6.5/7 to become the under-16 junior champion. CCBW hosted the tournament to create awareness about the benefits of playing chess as a family sport and staying away from screens.

Junior Champion Samarth Gupta

Tournament champion Ravishanker

The veterans +60 section had a remarkable result: 84-year-old Kranti Kumar Gupta from Bareilly scored 4 points to take first place, and 83-year-old R K Gupta from Jhansi scored 3.5 points to take the second place. R. K. Gupta even brought his student's team, who he is coaching himself, at the RNS World School, Jhansi, they were the best overall team from UP.

Sayeed Ahmad with 6 points and Samyak Sagar with 6.5 points were second in the open and junior sections, respectively. Father-sons' team of Ashish Kumar, Ishit, and Ishaan won the best family prize, and Gyan Argal, Shivansh, and Saransh won the second best family prize. The top two unrated players were Nikhar Saxena and Shatrughan Rawat (4.5 points each).

Other top results:

Best Girl: Advika Tiwari, 3 pts; Best Woman: Aaditri Pandey, 2.5 pts;

Under 10: 1st Diara Agarwal 5 pts, 2nd Shahab Murad Alam 4.5 pts, 3-4th Amay Rajendra, Abhigyan Katiyar, 4 pts each.

Under 13: 1-3rd Arjun Garg, Saksham Srivastava, and Tanish Kumar, 4 pts each.

Under 16: 1st Ujjwal Raj Srivastava, 5 pts, 2nd Saransh Argal 3.5 pts, 3rd Karthikeya Chaturvedi 3 pts.

Green Earth Chess: Bharti wins title, Ujjwal Jr. champion, Hrothbertina Best Woman

English teacher from Azamgarh, Vishal Bharti, displayed fine endgame technique to win the Green Earth Chess Tournament at Charans Plaza with 6.5/7 points. Ujjwal Raj Srivastava starred in the Junior Section scoring 6/7 points.

Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) organised the tournament to create awareness about the need to protect our environment under the United Nations #GenerationRestoration campaign. All players were also gifted a Holy Basil plant.

Youngsters who impressed with their games but included Udit Gupta, Nikhar Saxena and Shivangi.

A Class VIII student, Ujjwal has Espina Bífida, a spinal problem, that has paralysed him for life. It was only in 2012 that a surgery at AIIMS Delhi helped him move his hands and fingers. His parents carry him to the stage to receive the prize. He started learning chess from his school games teacher, Amit Srivastava. "Ujjwal has great passion for chess and works hard by himself. If he can do this, then any kid can," say his parents Rajneesh and Anamika.

Bharti says, "I hail from the culturally rich town of Azamgarh. As a dedicated teacher and trainer of English, I have a passion for nurturing minds and fostering a love for the English language. Chess is not just a hobby for me; it's a profound passion that I pursue with great dedication. Although, Azamgarh is my home, Lucknow holds a special place in my heart. Many of my family members reside here, and I've been visiting the city regularly since 2013. I embrace every opportunity to immerse myself in the strategic world of chess, constantly seeking to refine my skills and enjoy the intellectual challenge it offers."

Chinmay Vajpayee was tournament runner-up with 5 points. U16 section runner-up was Tanish Kumar with 5.5 points. Veterans KK Khare, Sayeed Ahmad (4 points each) took the top honours in the Veterans +60 section followed by Rajinder Mahana and Mohd Irfan in joint third place with 3 points each. Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani scored 2.5 in the section.

Hrothbertina Hilton won the women's section followed by Rekha Gaur and Vinky Dixit. The top-3 Best Unrated players were Neeraj Chaurasiya (4.5 points), Aarav Garg and Sanjeev Kumar, 4 points each.

The Best Family prize (introduced by CCBW) went to the Mishra Family from Lakhimpur which included CP Mishra and his kids Yash and Yashasvi. They were followed by Ashish Kumar and his sons Ishit and Ishaan. Chess Club Black & White promotes chess as a family game to help children stay away from screens and instead acquire life skills from chess. As a heat wave sweeps North India, it is the best time to stay indoors and play chess say club members.

(Above) the Kumar family from Lucknow and the Mishra family from Lucknow.

Top Results
1. Vishal Bharti (Azamgarh) 6.5 points, 2. Chinmay Vajpayee 5.5 points 3-6. Saurabh Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Bajpai, CP Mishra (Lakhimpur), Prem Singh Mehta 5 points

Junior Section Results

U10 1st Suyash Shukla (Lakhimpur) 5.5 points 2nd Yash Prakash Mishra (Lakhimpur) 5 points 3rd Vardhan Gupta (Lakhimpur) 4.5 points.

U13 1-3rd Ayush Goswami, Ishaan Kumar, Saksham Srivastava 5 points each

U16 Ariz Hussain 5 points, Shaurya Singh Chauhan 4 points.

Aarav Garg, Sayeed Ahmad tie for First at Lions vs Cubs Chess Tournament

Lucknow: Student and teacher, fourteen-year-old Aarav Garg, and veteran Lucknow player, Saeed Ahmad, of Lucknow Chess Centre displayed a fantastic performance scoring 6.5/7 points to tie for first at the Lions vs Cubs Chess at a Hotel Golden Apple, Mahanagar.

Three people tied for second with 5 points each including Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur), and top woman player Vartika R. Verma. Vartika has proved to be Lucknow's strongest woman player consistently making it to the top-10 in the Open category for the last one year. Parth Pande and Nikhar Saxena, both nineteen, excelled in tactical play.

Caption: Chief Guest GMJH Global MD Javed Khan with prize winners of the Lions vs Cubs Chess at a Hotel Golden Apple in Lucknow.

In the under-16 category, ten-year-old Ameya Rajendra and 14-year-old Ujjwal Raj Srivastava impressed with 5.5 points each.

"This was a special-format tournament Lions vs Cubs developed by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) to help unrated youngsters learn from rated senior citizens," said Fide International Arbiter and chess author Naveen Karthikeyan. He said, "These senior citizens became chess experts before the Internet era. Today, an app on your cellphone plays stronger than the world champion. It's easy to practice. How did our senior citizens play so well? It's pure human ability. We must treasure our senior citizens."

CCBW honorary director, UP champion, Dr Junaid Ahmad said, "We want to create chess opportunities for all levels of players. Some players felt, as an organiser, we would lose out on entry fee but that's never been our purpose. We are a charitable society. The more chess happens and the more the marginalised players get opportunities, we will benefit as a community. The All-India Chess Federation too has many such formats. We will continue with our all-women and all-senior citizen formats also."

Aarav Garg 1st in the Lions vs Cubs Chess.

Top results

(Lucknow unless mentioned)
1-2. Aarav Garg, Sayeed Ahmad 6.5 pts 3-4. Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur) 5 pts. 5. Neeraj Chaurasiya 4.5 pts, 6-10. Sanjeev Mishra (Kanpur), Ratnesh Shanker Verma, Nikhar Saxena, Zafar Mahboob, Ayush Singh 4 pts.

Senior Citizens
1-2. Sharad Kumar Sharma, Rajendra Mahana 4.5 pts 3-4. RK Gupta (Jhansi), Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani, 4 pts 5. Sakiluddin 3 pts

Women
1. Vartika R Verma 5 pts,
2. Vinky Dixit 2 pts

Fide Anthem Writer's Great Grandson wants to Design Chess Trophies

This artist-guitarist has his choices clear: On a carefree evening, he'd rather grab a game of chess than a cup off coffee! However, creative Frenchman Arnaud Berman loves old objects and finds coffee grinders "very pretty and elegant." So, he turns them into chess sets!

Arnaud, as an artist, has focused on creating art works and sculptures, mainly in low relief, with chess as the theme, for more than five years now. His sculptures, particularly in bronze, stand out with a mystical depth and would surely make much-coveted trophies in the chess world! That's what he wants to do next.

Marcel Berman
Arnaud's love for chess has a genesis. He is the great grandson of Marcel Berman, president of the French Chess Federation 1955-1958. Marcel Berman went on to become vice-president of Fide and also wrote the lyrics of the Fide anthem!

Arnaud has taken forward the creativity of his ancestor. He says, "I am reaching out to Fide to use my designs for trophies and awards especially in this year of the Century of Fide. I am also looking forward to having my work exhibited across the world in museums and shows.

That's not all. Arnaud has travelled quite a bit including to India. His polaroids are a treat. He says, "I love India and all my travels there were important in my life. I am an analog photographer and made pictures in Benares and Gokarna mainly."

You can see some photographs of India on his website: https://www.arnaudberman.com/benares#1
Instagram @the.chess.artist
Facebook: Arnaud Berman

Arnaud lives in the countryside in Normandy, near the forest and the sea. There are some chess clubs in the cities nearby. "I am not so far from Rouen, where my great grand father was living. That's where the famous chess club is."

There's more to Arnaud — he's the lead guitarist of a funk band called BIMP. He laughs, "I'm into groovy instrumental music. I like to compose stuff. You can say music that sounds a bit like soundtracks of detectives series from the 70's."

Where does all this creative inspiration come from? The Frenchman has a ready answer: "I get my inspiration by keeping space for it. I believe everyone has art inside. I decided to invest in that potential,to be available for its development in me, to let it grow. It made my finance unsure, my inner peace very strong."

Three cheers for Arnaud Berman and hopefully your next trophy will be a Berman Design!

— Naveen Karthikeyan

Guess who?