The 2019 World Chess960 Championship: Wesley So vs Magnus Carlsen

Chess Variants are games related to, derived from or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.

There are a lot of chess variants, in my opinion the most popular are Chess 960, Bughouse and Suicide Chess.

Fischer Random Chess, also known as Chess960, is a variation of the game of chess. It was invented by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer on June 19, 1996 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It employs the same board and pieces as standard chess, but the starting position of the pieces on the players' home ranks is randomized, following certain rules (see below). There are 960 chess initial positions that’s why it is called chess960.

In random setup, the players must rely on their talents and creativity than memorizing long theoretical lines and eliminates the possibility of opening preparation against his opponent as in normal chess.

In 2008, FIDE added Chess960 to an appendix of the Laws of Chess bringing more prominence to the variant. The first world championship officially sanctioned by FIDE, the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019, was held on October 27 – November 2, 2019 in Baerum, Norway and won by Wesley So.

Let’s look at the starting position of normal chess and chess960.

For complete games: just click the link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufivbJtaG3U&list=PLv4qCCz_l3dOA99UBLtQZ5Wu1isQ2t5fZ