42
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What is the worst opening move in Chess960 for White?
This calls for some scripting, so here's my first hasty attempt at it ;)
Here's a quick way you can do the search on your own in python, using stockfish 10 and only the python-chess package. All open-...
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Why isn't Chess960 the standard?
Chess players identify with their openings, all chess clubs have that one guy who always plays stodgy London stuff with white, the maverick with all his dodgy gambits and the youth player with 25 ...
- 27.7k
23
votes
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Chess960 or Chess959?
There is no mention of excluding the regular starting position in Appendix F. of the FIDE Laws of Chess, so it's really Chess960 and not Chess959. I can imagine that there are chess programs or ...
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19
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How can you castle legally in Chess960 when the castling rook is on the king's destination square?
The FIDE Laws of Chess actually cover this with a recommendation without mentioning the problem.
II.3.2.5.1 When castling on a physical board with a human player, it
is recommended that the king ...
- 94.5k
19
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What is the worst opening move in Chess960 for White?
Using @Phonon's Python script, I was able to determine that the worst move is 1. g4?? from the BBQRNNKR starting configuration, or 1. b4?? from its mirror image.
This evaluates to -2.5 in one second ...
- 1,679
19
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Can you castle twice in Chess960?
Excellent question. The rules state that this is not possible. Castling can only be done once.
This is explicitly mentioned under Guidelines II. Chess960 Rules:
II.3.1 Chess960 allows each player to ...
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How can you castle legally in Chess960 when the castling rook is on the king's destination square?
Touch your king, then your rook. By rule 4.4.1, you are now required to castle. You can now move the king and rook to their proper squares however you like, since you are already forced into a ...
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13
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Official rules for castling in Chess960? (Is there a loophole?)
Hi thanks for your questions Remellion. I have a better answer for Q2 than Q1, but bottom line there is no loophole in the FIDE Laws.
(1) I don't know of and can't locate any other official source of ...
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Why isn't Chess960 the standard?
To start with, standard chess in its current form has been the standard for a well over a century. It is well known and well established. It also enjoys a fair amount of popularity. It is widely seen ...
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10
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How to use dice to determine starting position in Fischer Random?
Several methods to do so are described on Wikipedia. For example:
Roll all the dice in one throw and place White's pieces as follows:
Place a bishop on one of the eight squares (counting from the ...
- 24.8k
10
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How can you castle legally in Chess960 when the castling rook is on the king's destination square?
I saw this in the chess news on a couple of sites, and it seems pretty simple to me. Pick up the K, and move it to g1, simultaneously pushing the rook off the g1 square. Then move the rook to its ...
- 32.4k
10
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How to calculate the number of combinations for Chess960 positions
You're counting the same position a couple of times and not including the rule that the bishops have to be on opposite colors. (And possible that the king must be between the rooks.)
The actual ...
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9
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Winning percentage in chess 960
The CCRL 40/4 FRC engine competition that has run through almost 200,000 games running night and day come up with these stats:
Chess960 FRC based off 200,000 or so games:
White wins: 80'914 (41.6%)
...
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9
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How to calculate the number of combinations for Chess960 positions
The bishops must be on opposite colors and the king must be between the rooks for Chess960. Each bishop can go on one of four squares, so there are 4x4 ways.
Now the queen can go on one of the six ...
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Minimal number of moves before castling in Chess960
Edit: This answer only deals with kingside castling; the figures have to be revised if you also consider queenside castling.
The three first steps:
There are 90 positions where n(P)=1
For White to be ...
- 15.8k
9
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Why isn't Chess960 the standard?
99% of the chess players will never reach 1500 rating, so for them the standard chess is quite good enough. Chess960 is interesting variation along with "atomic" chess and others, but the niche is ...
- 1,716
8
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Chess960 or Chess959?
There is a "Chess959" which advocates the removal of SP 518 (which is when the factors that lead to "randomizing" the chess pieces happen to have the same arrangement as the traditional layout.) The ...
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The Chess960 analogue in shogi, xiangqi, etc
For shogi and xiangqi, the answer is no. There is no analogue for western Chess960 in those chesses. Disclosure: I'm a decently strong player in all three.
The problems Fischer identified in those ...
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8
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Chess480: Why 480?
Consider two starting position that are each other's horizontal mirror images. Say, the normal chess starting position, and the one with king and queen reversed.
In chess 480, those two are ...
- 27.7k
8
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Chess960 - can Black profit by being allowed to choose a custom setup?
You're referring to what is known as double FRC - the starting position is not mirrored. While there are no FRC positions that favor Black, there are DFRC positions that favor Black.
DFRC was played ...
- 26.1k
7
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How to calculate the number of combinations for Chess960 positions
We can permute 8 pieces in 8! =40320 ways.
But we have some conditions:
Two knights are identical.
There must be opposite colour bishops.
Rooks are identical.
King must be between the rooks.
Now in ...
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What is the worst opening move in Chess960 for White?
You said "blunder a piece" or "lose significant advantage", so how about mate since that is even worse? I could only find a few, but here they are.
Since it takes at least two moves for there to be ...
- 32.4k
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Are there any inherent problems with point-symmetric random chess?
Consider the following initial position:
[FEN "rkqnnbbr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RBBNNQKR w - - 0 1"]
By putting the kings on opposite sides of the board, you've more or less introduced an ...
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Official rules for castling in Chess960? (Is there a loophole?)
One way out of this would be to invoke article 3.9.2 of the FIDE Laws:
No piece can be moved that will either expose the king of the same colour to check or leave that king in check.
Yep, that seems ...
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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?
Ah well, I can program that in MATHEMATICA in ten minutes, regardless of the details...
L = Permutations[{"K", "Q", "R", "R", "B", "B", &...
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6
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Does normal Stockfish handle Chess960?
Vanilla Stockfish uses the castling rule given in article 3.8.2 of the FIDE Laws of Chess. In that rule the king is always on the e file and the rook either on the a file or h file.
In Chess960 the ...
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5
votes
Why isn't Chess960 the standard?
Chessbase once published an article that touches on this question.
Chess960 introduces very alien positions, such as this one.
[FEN "bnqrnbkr/p2p1ppp/1p2p3/8/2PN4/1P6/P3PPPP/BNQR1BKR w - - 0 1"]
...
- 26.1k
5
votes
How to calculate the number of combinations for Chess960 positions
This number is derived by using permutations (an arrangement of objects where the order they're arranged in matters). We have a few variables:
n = how many objects there are.
r = how many objects we ...
- 19.8k
5
votes
Who is best at Fischer Random chess, humans or engines?
The machine, hands down.
These days the machine is so incomparably stronger than a player, that even if a player comes up with a better long-term strategy, they will still lose to inevitably missing ...
- 151
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How do they determine the starting position for Fisher Random / Chess 960?
8.4.3. Drawing of positions
● Set up of the pieces will be decided by a drawing made by Fischer Random Generator
software with all players present 15 minutes before the start of the first game of
...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible