This is an archive of past discussions about Chess960. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
It seems wrong to me to give the name 'freestyle' in the lede; the name of the game does not necessarily change every time a sponsor comes up with a different branding. Knot Lad (talk) 01:04, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
If reliable sources were to begin calling it "Bozo Chess", we'd have to say so in the lead. Encyclopedias and dictionaries should describe usage, not prescribe usage. Marcus Markup (talk) 01:29, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
Considering the influence of Wikipedia, a mention of it in the lede would legitimize it far more than it would ordinarily be. I'll be honest; I hate the name "Freestyle" chess. It's been called Fischer Random and Chess960 for a long time. That gives it a well established foundation. "Freestyle" has not been publicly used prior to this tournament, nor has it been used in any of the major chess websites and literature. If it becomes a commonly used name in the future, then I would say it's acceptable to include it. 2601:283:8481:2420:B02B:67B:57A8:10B1 (talk) 03:31, 30 April 2024 (UTC)
I agree, it is a goofy name and it makes me cringe, however, it is being used by mainstream sources such as The Guardian and Reuters[1]. I simply do not believe in removing well-sourced usages because it might "legitimize" unorthodox usages through their mere mention. Marcus Markup (talk) 14:50, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
I have removed it from the lede. Notably I did this because the term was trademarked by the organizers of the GOAT tournament (https://www.freestyle-chess.com/news/freestyle-chess-major-announcement-by-magnus-carlsen-and-jan-henric-buettner/) and they specifically refer to the variant they're playing as Chess960 in that article ("Freestyle Chess is a registered trademark. [...] All games will be played according to chess960 rules (also known as Fisher Random)"). Freestyle Chess is branding for their tournament and organization (notably the Freestyle Chess Players Club and Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour) and is not, at least currently, actual chess lingo. This may change in the future as a result of this trademark, but for now I think it's best we avoid fad marketing terms outside of discussing the fad itself. 2601:283:8481:2420:B02B:67B:57A8:10B1 (talk) 04:11, 30 April 2024 (UTC)
I was digging through the history of this page on the variants and found that the "synonym" issue has occurred before with the Chess9LX tournament. They ultimately came to the conclusion I did regarding trademarks. It's worth reading through and noting, since this kind of branding issue may come up in the future. 2601:283:8481:2420:B02B:67B:57A8:10B1 (talk) 04:41, 30 April 2024 (UTC)
