Chess960 Explained!

 It was just a friend who challenged me. His username is ADK

Thanks, I was not completely sure how to play...

I enjoy this variation.  Will this ever be added to live chess?

Okay you know what... chess 960 is AWESOME.  I've always been that type of person that says regular chess is enough of a challenge for me... but 960 is so relaxing!  ... wow I Love it.

Hey erik, will you eventually allow Chess960 in team matches and vote chess? I think it'll be pretty interesting since all that database use will go out the window in vote chess games.

 I agree.

But there's one problem I had that's not too big; maybe it is just me and my connection, but I couldn't do any conditional moves.

I think it could be a really helpful exercise in mid-game and end-game play. I'm aready about half way through a few games in the tournament I'm in and some of the positions are really interesting

Here are 3 new groups for 960/Fischer Random chess:

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/fischer-random

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/chess-960

http://www.chess.com/groups/view/rapid-chess960

I am really glad about this.

I will surely like it! Thanks to cc and keep doing great jobs!

Here is a nice way to decide chess 960 positions if you are deserted on an island with nothing but a chess board, another chess player, and a fair die.

1. Roll the die. If a 5 or a 6 disregard and roll again. If one, two, three, or four then count this many white squares from left to right. Place light squared bishop on this square.

2. Roll the die. If a 5 or a 6 disregard and roll again. If one, two, three, or four then count this many Dark squares from left to right. Place dark squared bishop on this square.

3. There are 6 squares now left. Roll the die. Count the open squares from left to right based on the die number. Place queen on this square.

4. There are 5 squares left. Roll the die. Disregard a roll of 6 and roll again. If one, two, three, four, or five then place the first knight on this square, counting open squares from left to right.

5. There are 4 squares left. Roll the die. Disregard a roll of 5 or 6 and roll again. If one, two, three, or four then place the first knight on this square, counting open squares from left to right.

6. There are now 3 squares left. Simply place the king on the middle square and the rooks on outer squares and you are all set.

We get 960 from the following possibilities:

4 X 4 X 6 X 10 = 960 which comes from

Number of places light bishop can go (4) X

Number of places dark bishop can go (4) X

Number of places queen can go        (6)  X

Number of possibilities for 2 knights (5 choose 2 or 10)

Note if we place queen before bishops then the dark or light squared bishop is restricted (as one of these squares is occupied and we get

8 (number of places queen can go) X 4 (non-queen colored square) X 3 (queen colored square) X 10 = 960

We do not need to calculate the places the rooks and king can go as, once the above restrictions are met, there is only one possibility for each piece.

Thanks for indulging me.

stats_man

Absolutely *FANTASTIC*!!!  Someplace I can play Chess960 with a good interface and a chess clock!!!  Thank you so much for adding this feature!!!

One suggestion:  The Open Seeks page doesn't make it clear if the game is really Standard or Chess960.  I just had an opponent accept my seek (even though I put Chess960 in the game name!).  I was White and the game actually started 1. e4 e5 and then I played 2. Qb5 (forking undefended pawns on b7 and e5 and preventing 2... Qb4 doing the same) and my opponent asked me why the board was all messed up!    It think he was on total auto-pilot up to that point.  I told him it was a Chess960 game and he promptly resigned.

It might be a good idea to either (1) add a column to the Open Seek page saying the game is Standard or Chess960, or (2) to have a separate page for Chess960 seeks.  I don't think most people on chess.com even know that Chess960 is even an option yet...  I just tripped over it myself by accident this morning.

Oh... OK...  It looks like there's a little Chess960 icon by the game name.  I guess people will figure that out over time.

I've also got a question.  How does it work in Chess960 tournaments?  Does everyone play the same starting position against everyone else?  And if the answer is, "Yes," and it's a multi-round tournament, do you play the same postion in subsequent rounds too or do you get a new starting position each round?

Hi guys,

Chess960 rocks!

Watch your backrank.

I have been playing a couple of 960 games over the past few days, since it came out. And overall I like it better then standard chess, even if I have lost all my games so far.

just because hitler built the autobahn doesn't make me want to rename it the hilter highway. i'm not saying fischer is hitler, but the argument that you ignore the bad to celebrate the good doesn't work for me. especially when that bad is really, really, really ugly hatred toward other people.

Nobody would even be playing chess960 if it weren't for Fischer.

Should you also rename the Alekhine defense?

Are you sure ur not calling Fischer, Hitler? The autobahn is awesome... Hitler was not. Fischer hated everybody equally

Gosh, that's sad... I mean, I was okay with the reasoning that you didn't go with Fischerrandom because Chess 960 was already standardized or whatever, but to actually admit that his "really, really, really ugly hatred toward other people" had a bearing on the decision is pretty terrible.

It shows that it is actually a kindof spiteful, revenge-motivated action.

And the Fischer-Hitler syllogism (yes I know you deny it a sentence later but that's sloppy - you clearly made the comparison) is the lowest kind of emotional argumentation possible. (you know who else hated the Jews?? kindof a thing, as if to obliquely remind us that "we're dealing with an antisemite here, guys, the worst thing in the world!")

I dunno - I thought that it wouldn't involve a persons viewpoints whatsoever. It is more just about recognising authorship.

I was done with this argument (I honestly don't care about it as much as I come across - where I come from they taught me to either argue vehemently or not at all, kindof like chess - either play to win or don't) - but now that it's admitted that it's almost a deliberate kind of revisionist history - part of the chess world's attempt to sweep Mr. Fischer under the rug as it were - even though he embodied chess - well, I think it's shameful that you've chosen to put another nail in his historical coffin.

IT IS your perrogative, and choice to make of course.

It's your site.

You really do have a powerful amount of sway over this, historically, which is interesting, considering the reach of this site.

I'm understand - and it's okay.

I just feel sorry for Bobby's legacy. He deserved more.

Hey captain pompous. I agree with you.

Edit: Though Erik never actually said that his "ugly ugly hatred" had any bearing on his decision. Is that some more "obvious" speculation?

He's saying that the argument about "ignoring the bad" doesn't fly with him - "especially when that bad is really, really, really ugly hatred toward other people".

which I take to mean it had a bearing on the decision. Shrug.

There's another quote from earlier in the thread I can grab wherein he directly comments on Fischer's morality too.

Captain Pompous out.

EDIT: Erik removed his earlier post which would've clarified.