Chess 960 Logo

Chess 960 or Fischer Random Chess.Tips and rules

aarush_karnati

Jul 24, 2020, 8:31 AM | 3

Chess960, or Fischer Random, is a variant invented by the late World Champion Bobby Fischer. The rules of the game are the same as standard chess, but in an effort to reduce the impact of opening theory, the pieces have been randomly shuffled on each player's back rank.

Games end in the traditional ways of checkmate, stalemate and time-out.
Bishops must still be on opposite colors in the initial Chess960 position.
The king must be between the rooks to maintain the ability to castle both ways. That means a king can only be placed between the squares b1 and g1 or b8 and g8 for Black.
This means:
- No matter the location of the king and rook, standard rules of castling apply. It must be the first move for both king and rook, the king may not travel into or through check, and there may be no pieces on any square that either piece travels through.
- The king and rook end the process of castling where they would in a standard chess game. Example: Even if a white king is on b1 and a rook is on e1, castling kingside would involve dragging the white king to g1 (its final destination square), which will automatically move the white rook from e1 to f1, as White will always have the king on g1 and the rook on f1 in the final castled position.
- Before the game, a starting position is randomly determined and set up, subject to certain requirements. White's pieces (not pawns) are placed randomly on the first rank, following two rules:
  1. The bishops must be placed on opposite-color squares.
  2. The king must be placed on a square between the rooks.
  Black's pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to White's pieces. (For example, if the white king is randomly determined to start on f1, then the black king is placed on f8.) Pawns are placed on the players' second ranks as in standard chess.
  
  After setup, the game is played the same as standard chess in all respects, with the exception of castling from the different possible starting positions for king and rooks.
  
  There are 4 × 4 × 6 × 10 × 1 = 960 legal starting positions:
  - 4 possible squares for the light-squared bishop;
  - 4 possible squares for the dark-squared bishop;
  - 6 remaining squares for the queen;
  - 10 different ways to place the two (identical) knights in the remaining 5 squares;
  - only 1 way to place the two rooks and king in the remaining 3 squares, since the king has to be between the two rooks.
  This provides an easy way to set up a game (e.g. using a die / re-roll if needed to get values in the range 1-4 or 1-5).
- Before the game, a starting position is randomly determined and set up, subject to certain requirements. White's pieces (not pawns) are placed randomly on the first rank, following two rules:
  1. The bishops must be placed on opposite-color squares.
  2. The king must be placed on a square between the rooks.
  Black's pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to White's pieces. (For example, if the white king is randomly determined to start on f1, then the black king is placed on f8.) Pawns are placed on the players' second ranks as in standard chess.
  
  After setup, the game is played the same as standard chess in all respects, with the exception of castling from the different possible starting positions for king and rooks.
  
  There are 4 × 4 × 6 × 10 × 1 = 960 legal starting positions:
  - 4 possible squares for the light-squared bishop;
  - 4 possible squares for the dark-squared bishop;
  - 6 remaining squares for the queen;
  - 10 different ways to place the two (identical) knights in the remaining 5 squares;
  - only 1 way to place the two rooks and king in the remaining 3 squares, since the king has to be between the two rooks.
  This provides an easy way to set up a game (e.g. using a die / re-roll if needed to get values in the range 1-4 or 1-5).
- Here is the information i know so please check it may be useful please ask doubts and comment the next variant i should blog about

Chess 960 or Fischer Random Chess.Tips and rules

aarush_karnati’s Blog