Discover 960 possibilities

I found this article on the internet about chess960.  I did play a few games, and although it is fun for a change of pace, I will have to side with traditional chess. Thank you all for your comments and input. 

Chess960 – Discover 960 possibilities

Chess 960 is a variant of orthodox chess. In classical chess the starting position of the game does never change.

The idea of this variant goes back to the former World Champion Bobby Fischer, therefore it is also called Fischer chess or Fischer Random Chess. But only the randomized initial chess position is depending on chance not the result of the game.

In Chess 960, just before the start of every game, the initial configuration of the chess pieces is determined randomly, that means that the king, the queen, the rook, the bishop and the knight are not necessarily placed on the same home squares as in classical chess. There are 960 distinguishable starting positions, if we take into account some constraints: the king is placed somewhere between the two rooks to allow castling. Now try to memorize opening moves for 960 different initial configurations. Quite impossible!

That is why the aspect of a well memorized theory about chess opening move sequences is less important, what counts is the chess game itself, just in a different way. But, of course, those who are good players in classical chess have all their chances in chess 960, too, because the knowledge about position analysis, tactics and occupation strategy of the chess board applies here as well, just for different positions.

Chess 960 is also interesting for orthodox chess lovers because the initial configuration 518 is the starting position of classical chess.

Mathematically, orthodox chess is only a (small) part of chess960.