Christian Freeling is a Dutchgame designer and inventor of abstract strategy games, notably Grand Chess, Havannah, Hexdame and Dameo. "Christian's games often embody a desire to get to the heart of the concepts used in abstract games. This is most clearly displayed by his minimalist chess variant, Chad, and his version of column checkers, Emergo." Freeling's designs cover a range of game types. Several are endeavors to improve on established games that he concluded are flawed or limited in some way. Some introduce familiar game mechanics into uncommon settings. He regularly translates rules for his orthogonalboard games to the hexagonal grid, resulting in new versions with altered properties – usually enhanced strategy and tactics options, and fewer draws.
Notable games
utilizes the same compound pieces as Capablanca Chess, but the starting setup the rooks, giving immediate freedom of movement and "yields the better game". Internet Grand Chess World Championships have been held, and NOST sponsored yearly tournaments beginning in 1998. A Grand Chess tournament in Yerevan in 1996 attracted 21 chess masters. Havannah, a connection game using hexagonal cells like Hex, offers "a subtler strategy and much more varied tactics". The game was published by Ravensburger in 1981 and marketed for ten years, winning critical acclaim. In 2002 Freeling offered a €1,000 prize for any computer program in ten years that could beat him in even one game in a 10-game match, believing the nature of Havannah made the game difficult to program and therefore best played by human strategic thinking. In October 2012, via Internet, a 10-game match was conducted between Freeling and three Havannah bots. Freeling won by +7−3=0, losing two games to Lajkonik and one game to Castro. Hexdame exactly translates international draughts rules to a hexagonal gameboard, increasing options for moves and tactics, and reducing draws. The World Draughts Federation has actively promoted Hexdame as an alternative to the 10×10 game. Dameo utilizes all 64 squares of the checkerboard and introduces linear movement of lines of men, similar to Epaminondas and Bushka, to speed play, enhance tactics and curtail draws. "Considerable work has already gone into analyzing Dameo, and some remarkable discoveries have been made in the area of endgame positions with just a few pieces left."
Personal life
On 13 May 2000 in Enschede, SE Fireworks exploded 120 meters from Freeling's home, killing 23 people, wounding 947 and destroying 400 houses including Freeling's. Although uninjured, all his possessions and game materials were lost in the tragedy. Freeling has three sons and one daughter. Demian invented Congo, a xiangqi variant, in 1982 when nearly 8 years old.
