[1] The tour was co-founded by five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and German investor Jan Henric Buettner.
[13] Prize money is awarded as follows: While the fourth Grand Slam is currently scheduled to take place in New Delhi from September 17 to 24, Buettner stated in an interview that the venue might be changed due to lack of investor interest.
The top four players, Vladimir Fedoseev, Denis Lazavik, Javokhir Sindarov and Olexandr Bortnyk advanced to the 16-player knockout stage, held on January 7 and 8.
[20] Fedoseev beat Sindarov in the final in an armageddon game, after a 2-2 tie, and qualified for the Grand Slam.
[22] On the first day of the tournament, Javokhir Sindarov remained undefeated, winning four out of his five games, including a victory against Magnus Carlsen.
[23] On the second day, Alireza Firouzja defeated Sindarov in the final round, securing first place in the round-robin on tiebreaks and earning the right to be the first to select his opponent for the quarterfinals.
Levon Aronian and Vladimir Fedoseev were eliminated from the main competition and were set to compete against each other in a match for ninth place.
[25] At the technical meeting for the tour on February 7, it was announced that qualification would change for the Paris tournament, with the field expanding to 12 participants.
[14] On December 21, 2024, the Freestyle Chess Players Club issued a press release on Twitter stating an agreement on a "friendly co-existence" with FIDE, and ongoing discussions "regarding the mutual recognition of future World Championship titles".
[30] Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik questioned the recognition of "a private event (with all respect) as official WC [sic]", and the involvement of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Chess.com, and exclusion of World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, in the agreement.
[31] On December 27, in an interview with Levy Rozman after withdrawing from the World Rapid Championship over a dress code dispute, Carlsen accused FIDE of "going after players to get them not to sign with Freestyle" and "threatening them that they wouldn't be able to play the World Championship Cycle if they played in Freestyle".
[37] In an interview with Sagar Shah on January 15, 2025, President Dvorkovich reiterated Sutovsky's statement, adding "...we are very open about finding a solution, and we believe it is about the goodwill from the side of our potential partners.
[39][40] On February 10, 2025, twelve members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club met at the Weissenhaus resort with organizer Jan Henric Buettner, "unanimously deciding that the 2025 Grand Slam Tour winner will be titled Freestyle Chess Champion".