The chess960 "improved"

Pour lire une version en français de cet article.

Chess960 is in vogue, especially due to the former world champion Magnus Carlsen who has become an ardent promoter of it, seeing in this chess variant the ludic future of the game.

However, after observing the practice of chess960 over the past few months and reading the opinions of various players and chess experts on the subject, I have identified a weakness in chess960 that is hindering its wider adoption. This weakness is that the games all begin from a different starting position.

You're going to reply: "Obviously, since that's the very principle of chess960!" And that's when I reply: "No, it's possible to imagine that the games all start with the same starting position, while subsequently allowing you to play one of the 960 positions of chess960." You must be widening your eyes, or even tapping your index finger against your temple, thinking "this guy is crazy!"

Let me explain...

Co-construct the first rank of pieces as a new initial phase of play

Let's suppose that the game begins not with the 32 pieces and pawns placed on the board from the outset, but only with the two rows of pawns on the second rank:

We could then imagine that the introduction and placement of the pieces on the 1st rank (respectively the 8th) constitutes a new active phase of the game: a co-construction by the two players of the starting position before playing the 1st effective move.
This new phase of introduction and placement of pieces would be noted on the score sheet as being the first 4 moves of the game, which would therefore in fact "effectively" begin only on the 5th white move.
It is important to remember in what order the pieces are progressively introduced on the 1st rank during the first 4 moves: 1st Bishop, 2nd Bishop, 1st Rook, 2nd Rook, King, and finally the last 3 pieces (the Queen and the 2 Knights) in any order.

Example of the start of a game of chess960 "improved"

Here is how a chess960 score sheet would look, for example, where this improvement would be used:

EXPLANATIONS
First move: White decides to place a Bishop on g1 and, symmetrically, a black Bishop on g8 (Bg1 (Bg8)).
Black decides to place his second Bishop on d8 and, symmetrically, a white Bishop on d1 (Bd8 (Bd1)). Black must respect the following condition: this second Bishop must be placed on a square of the opposite color to the one on which White placed the first Bishop.

2nd move: White decides to place a Rook on b1 and, symmetrically, a Black Rook on b8 (Rb1 (Rb8)).
Black decides to place his second Rook on h8 and, symmetrically, a White Rook on h1 (Rh8 (Rh1)). Black must respect the following condition: He must place this second Rook, leaving at least one empty square between the two Rooks.

3rd move: White decides to place his King on c1 and, symmetrically, the black King on c8 (Kc1 (Kc8)). White must respect the following condition: he must place the King on a square between the two Rooks.
Black decides to place his Queen on e8 and, symmetrically, the white Queen on e1 (Qe8 (Qe1)). Note: Black can freely choose which of the three remaining pieces (between the Queen and two Knights) he places.

4th move: White decides to place a Knight on a1 and, symmetrically, a black Knight on a8 (Na1 (Na8)). Note: White can freely choose which of the two remaining pieces to place.
Black decides to place his second Knight on f8 and, symmetrically, a white Knight on f1 (Nf8 (Nf1)). Note: Black places the last remaining piece on the last empty square.

➡ The starting position is now complete. It is position 253 (piece order on the first rank: NRKBQNBR). The game now continues as a regular 960 chess game.

5th move: White plays his first effective move: pawn f2-f4 (f4).

Why is this variant an improvement over standard chess960?

The advantage of this variant over the usual 960 chess is that the starting position is always the same, namely a chessboard with only the two rows of white and black pawns aligned on, respectively, the 2nd and 7th ranks.

1. This uniqueness of the starting position makes it easier to imagine the development of a whole new theory of openings focused mainly on the first 4 introductory moves and the placement of the pieces on the first rank by the two players (co-construction of the 1st rank of pieces).
2. This uniqueness of the starting position also allows us to better continue to think about a common history of the game of chess since all games begin with an identical position.
3. This uniqueness of the starting position facilitates the organization of tournaments in chess960: all chessboards are prepared with only the two ranks of pawns arranged on the chessboard. The other pieces are aligned outside the chessboard, ready to be introduced onto the chessboard by the players during the first four moves of the game.

Download a PDF file that explains this variant of Improved Chess960 in more detail.