Hi PPCC Friends,

This is a friendly reminder to sign up for the Ye Olde Medieval 960 Tournament taking place tomorrow at 7:30PM!  If you haven't played in one of our tournaments before, they're totally free, very casual, and you have a chance to win a solid gold* trophy that you can proudly display on your mantle!  We strive to regularly schedule tournaments around our club members' favorite variants, as we think it accentuates the laid-back, social, silly vibes that our club likes to bring to the chess community.

Sign-Up For the Medieval 960 Tournament

If you haven't already, click this link and fill out the signup form: https://forms.gle/HadRMhekRtGZWWRk7.

Wait, How Do I Play Medieval 960?

The initial setup of Medieval 960 is to place the pawns on each player's 3rd rank (3rd rank for white; 6th rank for black), like so: 

Once this is done, the players will alternate drafting pieces into the 1st and 2nd ranks (behind their pawns).  For example, if White uses their first draft pick to place his bishop on the f2 square, Black will mirror that placement by placing their bishop on the f7 square...

...then, Black is able to place any remaining piece into the remaining squares in the back 2 ranks; for example, let's say Black then chooses to place the King on g8 - White would then have to mirror that placement, then White gets to place the next piece.

The resulting "starting" position will be mirrored for both player, but each player will have equal say in how the board is constructed due to the snake-draft style of piece placement.  Below is an example of what the starting position for a game could look like:

Once both players have placed all of their pieces, White begins the game as usual.

Note: the above starting position is +.38 for White's top engine move, and the 2nd and 3rd best moves give -.02.  Most of these starting positions end up very close to even!

A few rules / caveats to keep in mind:

1. Since the pawns start on the 3rd and 6th ranks, they can only move 1 square at a time (i.e. no double move); therefore, no en passant.  

2. Your bishops must be placed on opposite colors (e.g. you cannot have 2 white or 2 black bishops).

3. No castling (even if the position would normally allow it).

Need more PPCC?  Click on the links below!

Discord: https://discord.gg/QrtV9D7ZaS

Website: https://www.prospectparkchess.club/    

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Chess.com Club: Hey, you're already here! https://www.chess.com/club/prospect-park-chess-club