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'Freestyle' chess scrambles the board episode artwork

Jul 21, 2025 13 min

'Freestyle' chess scrambles the board

from Plain English

Today's story: A new global chess tour is trying to make the ancient game more exciting—for both players and viewers. Spearheaded by Magnus Carlsen, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour shakes up traditional chess by randomizing the starting position of key pieces. The format reduces the advantage of computer-assisted preparation and rewards raw skill and intuition. The games are also broadcast with modern, viewer-friendly features like live commentary and player confessionals. Transcript & Exercises: https://plainenglish.com/792 Full lesson: https://plainenglish.com/792 -- Plain English helps you improve your English: Learn about the world and improve your English Clear, natural English at a speed you can understand New stories every week Learn even more at PlainEnglish.com -- Mentioned in this episode: Ready to improve your listening? Ready to listen fast? Improve your listening with the fast version of this and every episode. The full-speed version is a fresh recording and it sounds just like someone speaking to a native speaker (with no AI or computer manipulation!) You can even listen on a podcast app Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

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'Freestyle' chess scrambles the board

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This episode is 13 minutes long.

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This episode was published on July 21, 2025.

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