I have two questions.
- Where can I find more studies like this Lichess one, please? I got it from this answer elsewhere on this site.
The Lichess study is talking about this position
[White "White"]
[Black "Black"]
[Result ""]
[FEN "nqbrkbrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQBRKBRN w KQkq - 0 1"]
and proceeds to give some good (not necessarily the best) opening moves, in re a recurring theme or 'motive' in 960 starting positions where a rook is hanging.
Chapter 1
[White "White"]
[Black "Black"]
[Result ""]
[FEN "nqbrkbrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQBRKBRN w KQkq - 0 1"]
1. c3! { After 1.c3 Black has only 1..Ng6 or 1..g6. The latter leaves the knight in the corner, as we will see. } { [%csl Gg8][%cal Gb1h7] } 1... g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. e4 c5 4. Ng3 cxd4 5. cxd4 O-O 6. d5 { ...and Black is cramped. } *
Chapter 2
[White "White"]
[Black "Black"]
[Result ""]
[FEN "nqbrkbrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQBRKBRN w KQkq - 0 1"]
1. c3 Ng6 { Best move. This means, start position #310 requires forced moves to make it playable for Black. } 2. h4 h5 3. d4 c6 4. Ng3 e5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. Bxe7 Nxe7 { Black has solved all initial problems. However, any other moves will lead to problematic positions or loss of material. } *
Chapter 3
[White "White"]
[Black "Black"]
[Result ""]
[FEN "nqbrkbrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQBRKBRN w KQkq - 0 1"]
1. c4 c5 2. Qxh7 Ng6 3. Qxg8 Qxh2 4. Ng3 Qxg1 5. Nh5 { A mate threat is the best way to stop mirrored moves. } 5... Nh4?? (5... d6 6. d4 { White gets two pawns (f7,g7) so he can afford to sac one in the middle for continued attack on the king. Black might still try to return the threat: } 6... Nh4 7. Nxg7+ Kd7 8. Nh5 { This blocks the mirrored threat---the queen defends g2---so Black better frees the queen and sets up a discovery on the knight. } 8... Qh2 9. Qxf7 Nxg2+ 10. Bxg2 Qxg2 11. Ng3 $16 { White's king has no problems, contrary to Black's, and is one pawn up. }) 6. Nxg7# *
Of course, the point of Chess960 is to not study openings. But at least there are some patterns to be recognised. So, while this question is, by the letter, about openings, hopefully, it is, in spirit, recognizing patterns (in openings/starting positions) and therefore much more akin to tactics and endgames.
- Are there any 'puzzle' sites/engines/programs/programs/what you call it or books for Chess960 openings, such as determining the best, or any good, opening moves?
Off the top of my head, what anyone could just do is: generate a starting position, make a guess for White, and let the computer tell you the answer. Repeat for Black. Or you could make any move for White and then think of what to do for Black.
However,
2.1. in generating a starting position, what I'm hoping for in this standard position is something similar to the one in question (1) - that there's some kind of theme/'motive' like hanging rook. I mean, in the standard setup, which is very symmetric and has queens and bishops near the centre, there's not really any theme/'motive' here, so there's not really quite a simple way to come up with saying 1.d4 or 1.e4 are the best (or at least good) moves and (insert so and so) are the best (or at least good) responses.
2.2. this would be just for the 1st move or 2. I'm hoping for situations where the game is already a few moves (maybe 4 or less) into the opening and then players consider what moves to make
2.3. in (2.1) and (2.2), there aren't necessarily unique answers because the moves wouldn't necessarily be mistakes. Puzzles (like for tactics and endgames) often involve situations where the opposing side has just made a mistake and then it's up to the player to capitalise (and even then the solutions aren't necessarily unique!). I don't necessarily think computers can come up 'good-(bad moves)', so I figure this is where humans would come in. Maybe there are some sites or books that show traps that occur within only 4 moves, such as (possible generalisations of the) Costage Trap.
(P.S. If this exists or will exist, then THANK GOD for whenever this happens. Finally, a way to learn openings from puzzles, at least for standard chess players! I remember one of my chess mentors before said that while you can learn tactics and endgames from puzzles [but not only from puzzles of course], for openings it's like 'that's the time you have to start consulting books.')
- There's lichess opening, but there doesn't seem to be a way to pick puzzles from specified openings (YET: see 'Why would I care about which opening a puzzle came from?').
