Questions tagged [chess960]
Chess960 is a chess variant in which the positions of the pieces are decided by lot. The point of Chess960 is to stress understanding and calculation, not memorization. Use this tag along with the tag [chess-variants].
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Resources for Chess 960 games
Don't know if this is the right place to ask:
Where do I find resources specifically for Chess 960 games?
(Searchabílity is a must!)
Say, a megabase dedicated only to 960. A typical use case
would be ...
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Variant: 1st check wins
This is a simple chess variant: Normal starting position, normal rules, except the first check wins. With the problem chess software Popeye, alas, you can verify that 1.Nc3 due to the "fork" ...
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Checkmate with pawn moves only
Same as this one (also note this), only replace "king" by "pawn". (I.e. shortest 960 helpmate, the mating side only uses pawn moves.) Yes, it can be done in the near-lying 5 moves ...
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Checkmate with king moves only
What is the quickest way to get a checkmate under the following conditions:
The winning side moves the king on every move
The starting position is Chess960?
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Why was this recent Chess960 match of mine considered a stalemate?
So recently, I participated in a Chess960 tournament because I wanted to try and improve how I strategized, because that seemed to me to be what had been killing my Chess960 rating on Lichess. However,...
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Chess960 Swiss tournament tips
Does anyone have recommendations for a Chess960 Swiss tournament, where each round is a new position?
A possible problem is that some of the start positions are quite advantageous for White, so it may ...
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What are the pros and cons of introducing chess 960 without castling as a new chess variant?
Chess 960 is a popular chess variant that can be played on many platforms. All rules are standard, except the starting position is randomly generated. Some of these 960 positions give more than usual ...
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Is there a Chess 960 position in which White's moves can be decreased to zero without check?
Inspired by this question, koedem proved that, from the starting position, White's legal move amount can be decreased sequentially from 20 to 0 in 20 moves. However, doing so required some checks. I ...
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How do chess960 and chess differ 'beyond just opening theory'?
David said in What exactly does Bobby Fischer mean by 'talent' re 'I'm better than Morphy' in 2005 (probably re chess960)?
The differences between classical chess and 960 go far ...
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Armageddon: How much more desirable is black in chess than chess960 based on airthings masters 2023 vs 2022 WFRCC?
All games in question are 15 minutes.
In the 4 armageddon games in the 2022 (inaugural rapid, not the real, classical) WFRCC (both qualifiers and final 8), the Black winning bids are: 13,13,11:10,11:...
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What did Bobby Fischer say about how chess960 should be implemented?
Edit re the 2 close votes for opinion-based: This is as factual as it gets. I'm asking Bobby's opinion of how tournaments should go. I never asked people's opinions of how tournaments should go or if ...
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Why would I bid for white in armageddon in chess960?
Related:
Regular chess: Why would I bid for white in armageddon (in regular chess)?
Chess960: Why would I bid for white in armageddon in chess960?
Were there armageddons where white gets lower time or ...
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Chess960 castling controversies in the 2019 vs 2022 WFRCC, where both are Nepo vs Wesley So
Why did Ian Nepomniachtchi get a replay for the castling issue in the 2019 WFRCC vs Wesley So, but Wesley So didn't get a replay for the castling issue in the 2022 WFRCC vs Nepo?
I mean I know the ...
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Chess960 castling controversy in the 2019 WFRCC: Where can I see the original Nepo vs Wesley So game?
Apparently in the 5th game Ian Nepomniachtchi originally had to play 13. Rf1 instead of 13. 0-0 but then they allowed Nepo to replay the whole game.
The ff is the replay game:
https://lichess.org/...
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Armageddon: Does / Should White have a lower advantage in chess960 compared to chess?
I'm not (necessarily) asking which colour is more favoured in armageddon chess960. I'm asking that given however much or little white has an advantage of armageddon chess, is this advantage lower in ...
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What were all the chess960 armageddon games played in St Louis Chess 9LX and the WFRCC, and which colour won in each?
Well I think I know for
2019 WFRCC 3rd qualifying round and onwards
2022 WFRCC qualifiers quarter-finals and onwards
Every Chess 9LX
If anyone knows and has bothered to check the previous rounds, ...
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When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 2 classical games in a row to the same player besides to Wesley So?
Related questions:
When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 3 classical games in a row besides to Wesley So?
When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 2 classical games in a row to the same ...
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Why didn't Wesley So get full championship privilege in the 2022 WFRCC unlike Magnus and Vishy did since 2008?
Wesley So didn't get full championship privilege in the 2022 WFRCC unlike Magnus and Vishy did from 2008 to 2021. They got only 1 opponent to defend against, namely the unique winner of a candidates ...
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How does FIDE define slow rapid & fast rapid?
Note: This has practical implications if that's what you were wondering about. How can Hikaru in 2022 WFRCC be a successor of Wesley in 2019 WFRCC if 32.5min & 60min aren't in the same time ...
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In the 2019 WFRCC, did anyone catch up in a match after losing in the 'slow rapid' (classical?) portion?
From Wikipedia
Each match of the quarterfinals consisted of two “slow” rapid games (45 minutes for 40 moves plus 15 minutes for the rest, without increment), two “fast” rapid games (15 minutes plus 2 ...
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Hikaru on chess960: Have there been more Najdorf or Dragon games in the past decade?
From Wikipedia:
Hikaru in 2014 on chess960: (emphasis added)
I think chess960 is great as it is simply pure intuition and understanding without theory or computers. In my opinion, a lot depends on ...
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Does normal Stockfish handle Chess960?
Is vanilla Stockfish perfectly capable of understanding Chess960 games (including the way castling works), or do you need to use something like Fairy-Stockfish to get the best results?
It seems like ...
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Chess960 - can Black profit by being allowed to choose a custom setup?
In Chess960, the White position is mirrored. In some positions, White enjoys a larger first-move advantage than in standard chess.
Could we make Chess960 fairer by allowing Black to choose his setup (...
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Most advantageous starting position in chess [duplicate]
What is the most advantageous starting position in chess for White?
All Chess960 positions are known to be roughly equal (the standard chess position being one of the fairest starting positions; in ...
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Is there a strategy to win chess960 games? [duplicate]
Chess960, a variant where the backrank pieces are all randomized subject to a few constraints, is a variant of chess where you cannot really memorize openings. Is there a strategy in chess960 so it is ...
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What is white's increased advantage in chess90 as compared to chess870? (Chess960 can be split into 2 subsets, chess90 and chess870)
Here, it is shown 90 of 960 positions involve having to move a rook on 1 side in order to castle on the other side (unless the rook is somehow captured or something). These 90 positions come from 18 ...
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White is down 3 pawns in opening, but it doesn't seem like white is really losing
Lichess suggests Re3, Nb1, h4, Bf1, and e5 as top 5 moves. Evaluation is within (-0.7, 0.5). I expected it to be the evaluation to be at most -1. What's going on?
[FEN "rnbnk1r1/pp1p1p1p/2p1p1p1/...
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Why don't these statistics disprove white's supposed larger (practical?) advantage in chess960?
I've read that, at least theoretically, white has a larger advantage in 9LX as compared to chess. (See appendix.) This seems to be assumed in practice to the point that in some 9LX tournaments, such ...
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Is the average online account underrated in chess960?
I'm going to use lichess as an example, but I believe this applies to chessdotcom too. (I think it's better to use lichess as an example anyway because lichess and statistics for Chess960.)
It looks ...
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What is the meaning of 'fighting draw' vs 'draw by theory' in re Chess960?
I remember reading in some YouTube comment that Chess960 will lead to less draws or something. There was a comment response saying that it seems about the same. Then the original commenter replied in ...
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How many Chess960 positions exist in which castling on one side does not require moving the rook on the other side?
Update: It's chess870 (or chess869). See answer.
Context/Motivation/Goal: In regular chess, you never have to move a rook (on 1 side) to castle (on the other side). My aim is to see how much of 9LX ...
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Where to download fischer random games?
Where can I download the PGN files for the World Chess 960 championship from 2019, that was won by Wesley So?
I can view the games on the website e.g, https://www.frchess.com/stream but I want to ...
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Is an early "normalization" of the position in Chess960 a sign of good quality game?
First let us start with two definitions.
Definition #1: A position is said to be normal if there exists a sequence of legal moves from the classical starting position which lead to this position.
...
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How do convert/parse/extract data from a PGN into a spreadsheet/google sheet/excel file?
Sequel to this question: Live statistics chess960 from chess.com?
So suppose I go to like
https://api.chess.com/pub/player/gmwso/games/2020/12
or
https://api.chess.com/pub/player/gmwso/games/2020/12/...
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Chess480: Why 480?
From wiki:
Lewis has named this chess variation "Chess480"; it follows the rules of Chess960 with the exception of the castling rules. Although a Chess480 game can start with any of 960 ...
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Live statistics chess960 from chess.com?
Cross-posted stackoverflow, but nothing.
Both lichess and chess.com have the feature to play the variant chess960 live. However, only lichess has a graph showing how your live chess960 rating has ...
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Winning percentage (white win/draw/black win) in chess960/9LX in 2021?
How does the winning percentage (white win/draw/black win) in chess 960 (Fischer random) compare to that of regular chess?
The above was asked here: Winning percentage in chess 960. I would like to ...
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The slowest Fool's Mate in Chess960
The fastest Fool's Mate in Chess960 is obviously 1. d4 g5 2. Qxg5# with any ..Q.BRKR setup, which even beats standard chess. But which is the starting position with the slowest mate? I checked a few ...
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What sites have different ratings for different time controls for Chess960?
Both lichess and chess.com and have ratings for live chess960, but this is regardless of time control. Please recommend a site that has separate ratings for different time controls for chess960.
There ...
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The Chess960 analogue in shogi, xiangqi, etc
Bobby Fischer said
In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought ...
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Patterns in Chess960 positions
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 "...
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Relation between ratings for Chess960 and standard chess
Is there any relation or any attempt at discovering a relation between Chess960 ratings and standard chess ratings? This can be for GMs, for (any)M's, for pro players, or for all players on lichess/...
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Why Chess960/9LX and not Chess959?
This question asks if Chess960 is really Chess960 and not Chess959, i.e. the dice are really not re-rolled (positive, instead of normative). The answer is yes, it really is.
However, why is Chess960 ...
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Can you castle twice in Chess960?
Consider this Chess960 game. (Warning: moving backwards through this replayer will result in an incorrect board state. See Board playback and Chess 960 for details.)
[FEN "rnkqbbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/...
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Which engine is better at Chess960-Stockfish or Leela?
It seems that TCEC has seen Stockfish and Leela go back and forth. It is probable that these days Stockfish is a little bit better than Leela. I was wondering, since it is different in Chess960, which ...
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Are there any inherent problems with point-symmetric random chess?
The regular setup of chess is mirror-symmetric: If you mirror the positions of all figures on the equator of the board (between the fourth and fifth rank) and swap the colours, nothing changes. It is ...
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Is castling good in Chess960?
The overall arrangement of the pieces in Chess960 seems so weird that I have a question about it: should there be castling at all?
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What is the worst opening move in Chess960 for White?
Is there a first move for white in Chess960 in which white can immediately blunder a piece or lose a significant advantage (say -2.0 or so)?
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Official rules for castling in Chess960? (Is there a loophole?)
Note: this is another rules-lawyering question.
I first ask for an official source I am calling into question the phrasing of the rules. Then I consider a few plausibly official sources, and point ...
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How do they determine the starting position for Fisher Random / Chess 960?
I am watching the Fischer Random World Championship with Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So, and I am wondering how they determine the starting position?
Is it software that picks, or do they start left to ...
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