Welcome to the Group Guide! From this Guide we will try to help you access to all the relevant info posted here at Chess960 RandomChess forum and newsposts. Highly recommended topics. Chess960 - General concepts and theory Starting at Chess960 RandomChess What's Fischer Random -Chess960-? (Explained by Bobby Fischer) On the Opening in Chess960 (FRC) Rules for Castling in Chess960 History and Chess players Starting Positions and opening analysis Chess960 Starting Position Index Recommended bibliography, articles and external sites with Chess960 related stuff Interesting Chess960 (FRC) Articles and Sites 960Chess Online Games DataBases Interesting Chess960 FRC Books The Best Chess960 Engines Fischer Random in 1875 Open Discussion Forum for you to participate and contribute about different Chess960-FRC subjects How do you think Chess960 will affect to your regular chess? What's in a name? Chess960, FRC... Is castling a priority in Chess960? Open Discussion: FEN, X-FEN or Shredder-FEN Playing Zone @ Chess960 RandomChess Team Matches Vote Chess Chess960 Tournaments LET'S PLAY! (Chess960 RandomChess GREETER) ("Welcome Games" with the Newest Members) Chess960 RC Players Leaderboard FUN SECTION Chess 960 (FRC) - Endless Quiz Chess960 FRC's Quotes Any questions / suggestions about this group, do not hesitate to contact us: Suggestions Box or send me a Message

MATCH PARAMETERS ARENA 960 Match Name: TCMAC Arena S3 Ga Rb Team 1 vs Team 2Game Type: Chess960Starting Position: 960Days per Move: 3Quick Description: OptionalRating: Min / Max: Leave min. leave blank, max. leave blankMinimum Games: 10Players per Team: Min: 5 Max: leave blankConcurrent games per Opponent: 2 Start date: check the drawStart Time: equivalent to 12.00 PM, CET Rome (Link for timezone)Auto Start: Yes or No (unused)Games are RATED: Yes Calendar: Round Challenge Date Match Start 1 19-Sep-25 03-Oct-25 2 17-Oct-25 31-Oct-25 3 21-Nov-25 05-Dec-25 4 19-Dec-25 02-Jan-26 5 16-Jan-26 30-Jan-26 Challenge days and start of matches are all on Fridays.

For me, I like 960 chess as my favorite variant.  I like 3 day per move best.  As an under 1450 ELO player, here I can find up to several games monthly. Tournaments are usually too big and overwhelming and competitive for me.  I don't get ANY games in larger 960 clubs.  I like competing against slightly better players.  Our participation in TMCL960 and TCMAC helps that happen.   I also like to mentor and chat a little.  I'm open to unrated 960 games with teammates.  Or rated Standard.  I feel our club has so much potential for lower rated 960 lovers. Please share what you like or don't like about "960 Chess" Club.

One the standards for membership proposed is to limit the number of clubs a new member may have upon admission: Why ? - so there a good chance they will get our notices for team matches and play for us. Some players collect clubs like stamps. Then turn off the notices for team matches  examples:  Waelmohamedshalaby22 - 230 clubs , last played a game in January 2020, all games Blitz, last online May 2020

we want to keep the last post in this forum current to show the league, the recurring monthly challenge date, and the match start dates

1 day per move 960 League PRAETORIAN 960 ROME  2024 - 2025 Match Name: TCMAC 960 PRAETORIAN 2024 RX : ( X = for Round number check the draw)(add your team names if you wish e.g. team1 vs team2) Game Type: Chess 960Starting Position: 960Days per Move: 1Quick Description: OptionalRating: Min / Max: Leave min. leave blank, max. leave blankMinimum Games: 10Players per Team: Min: 10 Max: leave blankConcurrent games per Opponent: 2 Start date: check the drawStart Time: equivalent to 12.00 PM, CET Rome Auto Start: No i.e. leave blank, do not selectGames are RATED: Yes i.e. must be selectedExample:  1) exp: TCMAC 960 PRAETORIAN 2024 RX  ( X = for Round number check the draw): TCMAC 960 PRAETORIAN 2024 R1: LEGIO I ITALICA vs Team Nicaragua All rounds will start every 7th of the month, starting in October 2024. Pairings will be published at least 15 days in advance. Round 1: challenging period starts September 22th, match starts October 7th. Round 2: challenging period starts October 22th, match starts November 7th. Round 3: challenging period starts November 22th, match starts December 7th. Round 4: challenging period starts December 22th, match starts January 7th. Round 5: challenging period starts January 22th, match starts February 7th. Round 6: challenging period starts February 22th, match starts March 7th. Round 7: challenging period starts March 22th, match starts April 7th.       PRAETORIAN 960 2024 - 2025 CenturioneRomanoxxx        0  #4 ATTENTION : I post the challengers 22 

960 Tournaments Open for all Chess.com 960 Chess - Premium Members Open https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-premium-members-open  960 Chess - Ratings over 1900  https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-ratings-over-1900 960 Chess - 1800 to 1900 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1800-to-1900  960 Chess - 1700 to 1800 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1700-to-1800   960 Chess - 1600 to 1700 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1600-to-1700  960 Chess - 1500 to 1600 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1500-to-1600  960 Chess 1400 to 1500 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1400-to-1500  960 Chess 1300 to 1400 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1300-to-1400  960 Chess 1200 to 1300 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1200-to-1300  960 Chess 1100 to 1200 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1100-to-1200  960 Chess 1000 to 1100 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-1000-to-1100  960 Chess - 900 to 1000 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-900-to-1000  960 Chess 800 to 900 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-800-to-900  960 Chess U800 https://www.chess.com/tournament/960-chess-u800 

Our club owner wants to have us play standard chess format as well as 960 format.  If we have support of 30 members we could join a standard chess league called Team Match Championship League which offers several levels of play in four leagues.  Vote at end of forum comments if you want to play standard format with these rules. Please read the TMCL rules.  They have been much improved over the last 10 years.  TMCL now offers several leagues that we may want to play more standard format chess matches. TMCL: Description, Rules & Regulations Tournament Format Team Requirements Setting up Matches Removal of Players Closure of Player Accounts Standards of Behavior Participation in TMCL Player Eligibility Addenda 1. Tournament Format: All teams taking part in a Team Match Championship League (TMCL) tournament will be placed into separate divisions (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo) according to their playing strength, Alpha being the strongest. All TMCL tournaments are based on the Round-Robin pairing system in which each team taking part plays every other team within its group, across a number of rounds (these are usually a month apart). To limit the maximum number of matches any team may be required to play at the same time, the number of teams within a group is not allowed to exceed ten. Should a division contain more than ten teams, it will be split into a number of sub-divisions (six maximum), each one being made up of no more than six teams (spare positions being filled with 'Byes'), the winning teams from each sub-division going forward to play each other in a second stage Round-Robin (the 'Playoffs'). The number of matches a team will play in any second stage will depend on the number of sub-divisions as follows:- For divisions having only 2 sub-divisions, the winners from each one will play a single match to decide the overall first (Gold) & second (Silver) placed teams in the division but the two highest scoring runners-up will be invited to play a match for third place (Bronze) For divisions having 3 or 4 sub-divisions, the winners from each sub-div. will play each other in a 3 round Round Robin to decide the first 3 places For divisions having 5 or 6 sub-divisions, the winners from each sub-div. will play each other in a 5 round Round Robin to decide the first 3 places In the case of divisions which are sub-divided, a 'cut-off' point (15 weeks from the start date of Round 5) will be applied when all matches within the division are assessed to decide their results, unfinished games treated as null & void & the existing score (adjusted for any closed accounts:fair play as detailed below) used to determine the match result with winning teams going forward to stage 2 (the Playoffs). Any tied positions in rankings of teams are decided by our tie-break system. Once these stage 1 results have been posted an appeal period of at least three days will allow team admins to lodge any objections. Details of how a new tournament is to run will be posted some time before it begins and precise details of how to set up match challenges will be provided in the draw for each new round. The Schedule for the season will give further details of when all rounds are intended to begin along with team pairings for each round. * Results of matches are collated & adjusted by the TMCL admins on a 'best effort' basis: That's to say we can't guarantee to complete this process by a particular time but the results will be as accurate as we can make them. However, match data provided by chess.com is not guaranteed to be entirely up to date, so all team admins have responsibility to double-check the results we publish. We endeavour to be fair & even-handed & treat all teams equally, however, our final decision will be binding. 2. Team Requirements: All clubs that register with TMCL in order to take part in our tournaments must satisfy the following conditions:- have been in existence for at least 12 months (this may be relaxed by a few weeks at the discretion of the admins) have a minimum of 25 players Each team must be represented in TMCL by at least one responsible admin (preferably an SA), although we recommend a minimum of two for safety & they must:- be at least sixteen years of age have an account that's existed for at least six months join the TMCL league in order to receive our alerts for new rounds etc. have news/announcements/forum alerts from TMCL enabled for as long as their teams are involved in a tournament take equal responsibility with other team admins to ensure that their matches are opened, by either sending appropriate challenges or accepting them ensure that they build their teams in each round so as to reach the minimum size for their division confirm that they accept these conditions & post a comment to that effect in the confirmation thread at the beginning of the season 3. Setting up Matches: Details of the draws for each round, giving all the match setup requirements, will be posted on (or slightly before) the scheduled draw dates. Team match challenges should then be sent except when a team has a 'Bye' for the round, in which case no action is required & the team automatically receives a point. It is the responsibility of the team accepting a match challenge to ensure the match setup is correct! If a team is due to play a match but fails to take any action by the required time (we allow 120 hours from the posting of the draw), it will forfeit the round & receive a 'strike', the match point being awarded to the opponent (a 'Bye'). If both teams due to play a match fail to act, they will each receive a strike. Should one team issue a valid challenge, posting evidence of this in the draw thread, that team will be awarded a Bye for the round if its opponent fails to accept. * Only one strike is permitted in a TMCL season. A second strike results in the disqualification of the team and Byes are awarded to all their opponents in the same stage. Any club that has been disabled is immediately disqualified. Each team must reach the minimum number of players required for a match to begin and if this has not been met by the specified match start date and time, that team will be in default (receiving a strike) & the opponent will be awarded the match win. If both teams fail to meet the minimum player requirement for the match, they will each receive a strike. All matches must start at the specified time, as given in the setup instructions for the round. Under no circumstances should admins lock their teams. It may be possible, under exceptional circumstances, to start a match early but only by arrangement with the TMCL admins & with the agreement of the opponent team. Match manipulation of any kind is not tolerated and should it occur, we will act if we're satisfied that this has taken place. This includes the following:- Abuse of vacation time by players in matches having very close scores in order to affect the result at the cut-off point Players attempting to get around the Minimum Games requirement by doing the bare minimum in their qualifying Daily games and resigning or timing out in only a few moves etc. If the league admins are satisfied that such behaviour has taken place, we may treat the player as if they'd been disqualified and award both games to the opponent. In extreme cases we may disqualify the team concerned altogether. 4. Removal of Players: (i) With the exception of those having excessive timeout rates (see ii below), no player may be removed or withdraw themselves from a team roster. Any team demonstrated to have behaved in this way & failing to provide a satisfactory explanation within two weeks, will suffer a penalty of four points, plus two points per permanently removed player, added to their opponent's final score. Please note: The purpose of the above rule is to deter match manipulation by the removal of players who are deemed likely to lose their games. The TMCL admins will judge such incidents on a case by case basis & be sympathetic to teams that can show good reasons for removal. (ii) The ONLY exception to (i) is that teams may remove players with a timeout percentage of 15% or greater in the last 90 days from their roster and post a comment to that effect in the relevant divisional thread, giving the name & time-out rate of the player (this is not required where lists of such players have already been posted). 5. Closure of Player Accounts: Be warned that the TMCL competition is severe on cheating [1][2]. Match scores will be finalised after taking into consideration account closures of members due to fair play violation (Closed: Fair Play), i.e. cheating. In such cases we award any points won by the cheating player to their opponent & add a penalty of 2 points to the opponent's team score. If both accounts are closed (Fair Play) on the same board, their game points are ignored. Penalty calculations will be finalized at the cut-off date. For divisions playing only a single round-robin, we will continue to adjust match results until we declare the season to be at an end. 6. Standards of Behavior in TMCL: Disrespectful behavior, wherever it happens, will not be tolerated and will lead to the perpetrators being warned once and then banned from the Team Match Championship League group. Special behavior note: Abuse of any member of the TMCL admin team is grounds for immediate expulsion from the Team Match Championship League group without warning. 7. Participation: Entry into any TMCL tournament is at the discretion of the league admins & all teams must meet the conditions laid down in section 2. Any team or its admins may be removed from TMCL if they fail to demonstrate acceptable standards of fair play in matches or treat others with disrespect. New (June/24): If a team has acquired a total of two or more strikes across all TMCL tournaments within the previous 12 months, it will be excluded from joining any new tournaments until no more than one strike remains. 8. Player eligibility: Participating club members, including their representative admins, are free to play for any number of their teams in the TMCL 2024 season. Notes: [1] Any player with a Closed: Fair Play icon placed by their name is considered to be a cheat. No discussion will be entered into regarding cheating. [2] If you think an opponent player is cheating or being abusive, please report them to the site. Do not complain in the TMCL group notes or forums. Addenda: Round Robin Tie-Break System: We resolve ties between first placed teams by applying tie-breaks in the following order:- 1st Tie-Break: Sonneborn-Berger Score (see article). A team's tie-break (Sonneborn-Berger) score is calculated by adding the sum of the conventional scores of the teams it has defeated to half the sum of the conventional scores of those it has drawn against. 2nd Tie-Break: Average Win Percentage (excluding any defaults and byes). Example calculation: If a team wins a match 70-30 then: Win Percentage = 100 * (70/(70+30)) = 70%The Average Win Percentage is then the sum of the Win Percentages for all matches divided by the number of matches (excluding any byes or wins by default from the calculation). This tiebreak method accounts for TMCL matches being of a non standard size. 3rd Tie-Break: Winner of Head-To-Head matchup. The result(s) of the match(es) in the RR between the tied teams is used to determine the winner: One point for a win & half a point for a draw. 4th Tie-Break: Highest winning board in Head-To-Head matchup. The highest winning board is calculated as follows: Match: Team A vs. Team B (overall match is drawn 3.0 all) Board 1: Player_A1 1.0 vs. Player_B1 1.0Board 2: Player_A2 1.5 vs. Player_B2 0.5 → Team A wins tiebreak.Board 3: Player_A3 0.5 vs. Player_B3 1.5 (Go to Top) stephen_33  0  #2 I've tidied up our league Rules and Regulations and made them much more generic since we're now running a mix of different tournaments with various draw and start dates. Might have missed one or two things, so if anything isn't clear or omitted altogether, please post below......

TCMAC League has announced The First Season Of Its PRAETORIANS CHESS 960 TOURNAMENT. PRAETORIANS Tournament will be chess 960 and will be played on open rating and rating limited basis with 1 day per move . So There are Three types of Rating Ranges 1) Open Rating 2) UNDER 1400 3) UNDER 1700 So when Registering Clubs are asked to mention under which rating range they need to play along with club name , club link and the representative admin of the respective club. Registration will ends on APR 30 And Schedule Will be released on MAY 4.

Rules for Castling in Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess) Due to the different starting positions, castling in Fischer Random Chess (FRC) might look quite complicated to a new player. The rules are actually very easy to learn because they have not changed. So if you are familiar with the castling rules for standard chess, you will be fine. As in standard chess, Fischer Random chess960 allows each player to castle once per game. After castling, the king and rook's final positions are exactly the same as they would be in standard chess. Thus, after castling a-side (known as 0-0-0 or Queen-side castling in standard chess), the King lands on the c-file (c1 for White and c8 for Black) and the Rook is on the d-file (d1 for White; d8 for Black). After castling h-side (known as 0-0 or King-side castling), the King lands on the g-file (g1/g8) and the Rook on the f-file (f1/f8). The rules for castling in FRC are the same as those in standard chess: Unmoved: The king and the castling rook must not have moved before in the game, including castling. Unattacked: All of the squares between the king's initial and final squares (including the initial and final squares) must not be under attack by any opposing piece. Vacant: All the squares between the king's initial and final squares (including the final square), and all of the squares between the rook's initial and final squares (including the final square), must be vacant except for the king and castling rook. These rules have the following consequences: If the initial position happens to be the standard chess initial position, these castling rules have exactly the same effect as the standard chess castling rules. All the squares between the king and castling rook must be vacant. Castling cannot capture any pieces. The king and castling rook cannot "jump" over any pieces other than each other. A player may castle at most once in a game. If a player moves his king or both of his initial rooks without castling, he has lost the ability to castle for the rest of the game. If only one rook has been moved, the king may not castle using that rook, and thus may not castle to that side of the board. In some FRC positions, it is possible to castle if the a, b, or h squares are occupied. This is because the king does not land on these squares after castling, nor does the king travel through them. The king may not be in check before or after castling. The king cannot move through check.

Together, we can create the best Chess.com DB with games and analysis for each 960 Starting Positions (SP), providing us with a helpful guide for our future individual games and team matches. We are not aiming to develop a complete Opening / Game Explorer as the ones available for Classic Chess (mainly because we would need around 3 Billion (with "B") games to do that, and unfortunately, there are just a few thousand games played by GMs in tournaments). Our main goal, should be to describe each Starting Position, with comments providing advise about Castling, Development and Weaknesses in every Starting Position. You are welcome to contribute and populate the DB list with all your chess960 games, comments and personal analysis! Please post them into the corresponding SP thread. (if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask!) TO USE THE DB INDEX CLICK ON THE SP - ID LINKS TO GO TO THE CORRESPONDING THREAD! SP: these are the 960 IDs for the Random chess Starting Positions. Check for the active LINKS to got to the corresponing SP analysis threads. SetUp: taking white position, the pieces location for each SP. It will help you to find easily the SP code (using CTRL+f and typing your pieces distribution) Besides, you can use it to create a X-FEN string: [FEN "xxxxxxxx/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/XXXXXXXX w KQkq - 0 1"] or the Shredder-FEN: [FEN "xxxxxxxx/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/XXXXXXXX w AHah - 0 1"] *Still deciding if we will post X-FEN or Shredder-FEN Twin: Each SP has its "twin" when playing in black, that means that e.g. the relative position for white playing SP000 it is the same as playing SP959 for black. Remarks: Any useful comments about the corresponding SP. Games in DB (+63,750): these are the Master, Computer and Amateur Games I have for each SP. I am in the process of gathering around 100k. (Hopefully, I will made those available to download pretty soon!) Return to Chess960 RandomChess Guide.

So, as Chess960 (FischerRandom) may be a bizarre game at first, you may play hundreds of games and find your rating at <1000. Well, if Chess960 is killing you, since when did people start writing 960 books? Almost never! Before I give you the tips, I will say that this is not easy. You can throw away your opening book, but keep your opening principles. These principles you should keep: Activate your pieces! A common way is to have a bishop on a long diagonal and by opening the long diagonal, you threaten a fork. This is the way victims resign at move 2. Control the center. Unless the fight is on either flank, control the center! The pieces will jump to the kingside and queenside! Don't get frustrated. When you are frustrated, this tends to lower your guard. Especially for the fork thing, if you miss it, take a deep breath. Learn from the game! Some middlegame tips: Participate. Participate in the fight, whether it is on the kingside, queenside, or center. Always castle before entering the fight. If you don't castle, your opponent will accelerate his attack by sacrificing unnessecary pieces and keeping the relevant ones. Find a fork or find an excellent threat. Such games can be won in the same manner as in the opening, with the fork, though it is less common. Some Endgame Tips (If you do enter the endgame): From now, the dust will settle down. You can transform into a regular chess position and carry your knowledge. If your opponent still survives, don't panic because of his defense. You have to break through his defense! Now, tactics is generally less important than strategy. In Chess960, the majority of games are decided by the plans. Why? Because the middlegame is based on a solid plan and not too much on tactics when you reach a Chess960 middlegame. If you don't like a tip, please ask me to discard it from the list.

What do you think of chess, a sport or a game? Why? Your opinion, please.

Chess Wheel 960 is a Chess960 board generator and editor for the iPhone. It's available in the iTunes app store (link). The app generates random starting positions or generates the specific starting position for 1-960. Alternatively, you can drag and drop pieces on the starting row and the app will tell you the starting position number. I'm very interested in any feedback you may have. Is this useful to the community? What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it? If you coud change it in some way, how would you? Please let me know what you think. Thank you very much! Here's a compsite of screen shots:

I am posting videos on my website for my chess in schools students (600-800 rated players) please watch and give me feedback thanks. To watch click here

On a happy note your truely just cemented my place as one of Alabama's top players by placing 3rd place overall in the Al state championship along side with former state champions IM Emory Tate, and Experts Brent Inmman and Byran Tillis.

I will post here, any Chess960 (FRC) tournament starting at chess.com. That way, you all can join and / or check for any interesting games played there. If you want to participate and play chess960 in individual Tournament mode, then simply track this topic to stay tunned! :) PS. If you create a Chess960 Tournament, please feel free to post a link here too! Return to Chess960 RandomChess Guide.

Hi there I really have been enjoying bemweeks contributions to chess960 and so I find myself in this group and at chess.com. The area of interest I have is in Advanced Chess960 (computer assisted). I want chess.com to recognize this way of playing by allocating it a rating's category. If you want to read up on Advanced Chess, type it into Wiki. If you type in Advanced Chess960 however, you only get a couple of links. It is early days. Why would I want Advanced Chess960 recognized at Chess.com?!? That question has been an ongoing chess game in my own mind! The resolution is not actually complex, but it is deep. Really deep. It is like the start of a chess960 game itself actually! I suspect the debate in my mind is actually a perfect draw and so, I put the debate out to you good people to see if you can stir the pot a bit. I'll start out with the contest that has gone on in my own mind on the topic to explain a little where I am coming from. Honestly I believe that the mind can find meaning in anything. If we were locked in a room with nothing but some grains of sand and a table, I suspect that we could pick up grains and arrange them onto the table in meaningful and purposeful ways. It is simply that our mind, the sand and the table are all part of the same transforming system. In the end the game of Chess and especially Chess960 it's generalised home, is no different in my view. That said, why am I drawn to play Chess960? The resolution to that question is easy. Within the knowledge base of my mind, Chess960 is very beautiful as I relate to it. Chess960 involves all the faculties of the human mind including creativity and yes even memory! It is a long term space for the human mind to have fun and to play around in without discarding the huge knowledge base of Chess itself! Bobby Fischer was a genius to see that Chess should not be thrown out, just encompassed! Ok with that clear, the next question is why would I want to have computer assisted Chess960 play accepted at Chess.com? That question is actually quite simply answered with an analogy. The computer is like a telescope that can help to peer deeper into the Chess960 galaxy than can be seen with the naked eye of our own intellect. Why not use a computer then? The answer is that there simply is no reason not to use a computer! Bemweeks, a member of this group has already proven that a computer simply does not understand the chess960 opening yet. It actually goes further than that. With our current technology, you can build the computer "telescope" that peers into the Chess960 game as big as you like and it still only scratches the surface. My own core duo laptop will get to six or seven moves deep quite regularly, but that depth is almost superficial. A truly monumental machine might regularly get to eight or nine moves deep. So what? My own organic mind will often miss a two move combination but at other times even my amateur perception get's to depths beyond the machine. My mind is unreliable! So you get a wonderful combination between computer superficiality and organic unreliability when it comes to analysing Chess960 as an Advanced Chess exercise! All the machine actually does, is to steer the game away from obvious blunders. The rest is up to the human mind! If you ever look at a computer evaluation of chess960 game, you will see what I am talking about. Essentially if you take out the blunders, the game is almost a complete empty slate, as if you were to take grains of sand and arrange them on a table in ways that please you! There is a huge gamut of choice. Even if one starting position appears to the player as unbalanced, that starting position either is not unbalanced for reasons that are not yet clear to the player, or if it is actually unbalanced, it returns to balance when seen from the perspective of the entirety of all positions in Chess960 that are similar to it. In that respect I think it would be wrong to play only one Chess960 position in a fixated fashion. I doubt that Bobby would have wanted that anyway. So Advanced Chess960 still finds the more skilled players. Choices made very early on will steer to loosing endgames, whether you use a computer or not. Actually, the whole notion of positions being unbalanced attracts players who are able and willing to find order and harmony in a surface appearance of disunity. This is where it gets more sticky and complicated. What would an Advanced Chess960 rating system actually achieve? That depends on point of view and points of view are inherently "sticky" in our mind like a spoon in a honey pot. The commonsense point of view is that we might as well acknowledge computer assistance in online chess up front and in the open. It is simply ridiculous not to. Thankfully there is no prize money at Chess.com for winning tournaments. If there was money involved, computer cheating would be rampant. The only prize at Chess.com is that you can measure your skill against other players. That is some prize and should not be underestimated! In that light, there is no motivation to cheat and you can and probably will get a clear distinction between computer assisted play and games without assistance. It just has to be formalized. So some people like myself, we want to use computers like an astronomer uses a telescope. That is totally legitimate and should be recognized. Advanced Chess960 is a huge egalitarian step. For the first time, amateurs who have not started the game very early in life, can actually contribute to the theory of Chess960, without fear that their ideas are fundamentally flawed. Previously, these lofty heights was only available to those who were born with a chess set in their cradle. The human brain (viewed distinctly from the mind from a philosophical reference point), is plastic to some degree, but at a basic level, operates from some well entrenched starting processes that are formed very early on in life. Teaching an old dog these tricks (any dog older than say fifteen years) is always going to be problematic. But with a computer to assist, even computers that are decade old or that run on mobile phones, those older human brains that have not been wrought drilled in chess vision from birth, are freed to explore the more creative aspects of the game within the limitations and confines of public scrutiny. So on a basic level, Advanced Rated Chess960 would distinctly seperate out those who like computer assistance from those that don't. The database would begin to accrue wonderful games full of ideas that would not have been possible without the telescopic vision of the computer. The databases will be free of silly blunders, and later on when the chess professionals enter the Chess960 universe, they will access that database and then scale the dizzy heights of the 960 mountain unassisted. They will not have done it without all those that have gone part way up the mountain with oxygen bottles to set up the base camps of ideas and knowledge for them. In Chess960 there are a lot of base camps and it is a very tall mountain and there is very little oxygen up at the top! For example, I personally think white's gambit opening in the following example is quite beautiful and interesting, but it is going to take a lot of computer assisted and human assisted analysis to prove whether it is actually brilliant! If nothing else, it very funny! That is what is so special about Chess960. It produces a good laugh as well: Do not underestimate the scale of this full blown gambit! Just one variation is already very interesting! 1.d4...d5, 2.c4...Bf5, 3.Nc3...dxc4, 4. e4 and you tell me where the black bishop on f5 should go! Perhaps this opening should be called the glider gambit? However here is the deep aspect of the question, should we bother with rated Advanced Chess960? This is where I reach a perfect draw in my mind and actually, the result is actually quite beautiful in it's own right. If we do proceed with it, we create a new competition and a lot of energy. That is great! If we do not, then you cannot know who is playing advanced chess from those who are not! However what I have done, is to declare it in the game header, that it is advanced chess960 and to leave the game unrated. That has produced an effect that I did not expect! You end up playing players around the 1200 mark that do not have computers, or even if they do, simply loose for lack of basic theory or just from simple error. It is very unlikely to get a really deep game happening in the move list. But that is actually not true! The perception of "deep" high quality games cannot be separated from a sticky point of view in my own mind! It is actually good to play many computer assisted games at the 1200 level, because it is teaching players how to play Chess960 without fear of loosing their rating. Without a rating system, there is discussion and learning that goes on without the veil of secrecy that accompanies competitive play. This is a good thing to do! Occasionally a player will come a long that will be able to scale the great heights of a Chess960 game all the way into the endgame, but you cannot know that in advance and when it happens, there is great learning. But there was great learning anyway! So unrated Advanced Chess960 is a very holistic way to play the game that involves our minds in sharing with other souls at all levels of skill, rather than just a pure desire to win from the point of view of only ourselves. Not only that, but the computer helps us to see the many "deep" lines that do not actually get played in the game for want of a simple error, and even simple errors do not destroy the quality of the game variations that did not actually get played! Go figure that. Answers are not resolutions let me make it clear. The answer is simply to introduce an Advanced Chess960 rating system at Chess.com. The resolution as I said, is a perfect draw I think. Chess and Chess960 is not actually a game that exists in it's own right. Chess is an exercise of the mind and that is all that it is. The mind moves along combinations that draw it to a perception of all that is beautiful...in our minds. You don't actually need a computer to do that! Even simple tactical combinations are inherently perfect, as is a thirty move combination. The perception of our minds is actually scaleless in extent where big and small are actually immaterial, perceiving a world that is entirely neutral, yet always interrelated and transforming. Personally, I have always felt in my spirit that the starting positions of a chess960 game are not actually the start of the game. They are just the transforming sometimes chaotic pre-organisation of the army that has already transpired prior to the real battle itself. This is why I have reached a perfect draw on the topic of rated advanced chess960. I think I will return to the unrated position I am playing through cited above, as well as a number of other unrated games. These games are helping beginners to learn and are just plain fun like an interesting double wing attack I've got to get back to. It is a beautiful perfect draw. Enjoy. Harry O

I was playing in a tournament that was 97% finished for the 1st round but have been waiting 5 months for the last few games to complete & play again . Now I cannot even find the tournament to see who still has to finish their games. A few players have spoilt my 1st impressions of the chess960 group

Chess960 is like a tropic island having 960 gorgeous beaches all with white sand and blue water. For some obscure reason, probably to do with herd mentality, everyone who vacations on the island chooses the same beach, no.518 in the numbering scheme assigned by the pioneer who first charted the island. There are so many people on that particular beach that there is no place to throw your towel down or pitch your beach umbrella, unless you cling to the rocky, dangerous cliffs that line both sides of the beach. If you want to go swimming or snorkeling you have to go out hundreds of meters to get away from the crowds. Of course, you can always rent one of those robot boats that ferry the thrill seekers as far out as possible, but the real insiders say that the increasing use of those boats is rapidly destroying the beauty of the beach. Meanwhile the other 959 beaches remain just as they were when first discovered. A few intrepid vacationers prefer those beaches to no.518, although they have a hard time explaining why. Maybe they don't like crowds and just want to get away from it all. Whatever the reason, on every vacation they choose a different beach at random and enjoy themselves so much that they are reminded why they came to the island the first time. Once in a while they go back to the crowds at no.518 to renew old friendships and revisit old haunts, but it is never the same as it was before.[To be continued?]