Evaluating the Starting Position.

The huge difference between chess960 and regular chess is the starting position. That brings up new questions, such as, ¨what should I aim for in the starting position¨. . .

Post how you evaluate the position to decide on your first move, how long it takes you to decide your first move, and what strategies have been most successful for you!

For me, I look at where my queen is first. A bad idea is to bring out your queen to early, but you also don't want to trap her. If my queen is 2 squares from a bishop, I make sure I won't fianchetto my bishop on the side my queen is on. . .Next, I see if my knights are in the corner, if they are, I normally bring them in the game several moves later because one move won't help them w/ central control. . .

After looking at all of my pieces and seeing which piece is stuck in the corner I normally make a pawn push that is backed by a rook or queen. Freeing up a bishop's diagonal is an added bonus! 

My first move takes me about 2 minutes to make, but I want to extend that time. 

The most successful strategies for me have been pawn pushing (backed by major pieces) on the side my opponent's king is on, and then castling to safety. . .The castling in chess960 is extremely deceptive and has been utilized to my benefit numerous times.

fantantic Z. it is your time S. please go on

I've only started playing 960 recently, so these are my early obeserations - use at your own risk :)

Generally speaking after evaluating the starting position I gravitate towards the following strategies:

- Castling driven strategy - sometimes, castling queenside requires a lot of figures and pawn moves to get to, so I prepare to castle kingside within the next 5-10 moves (if needed)

- Bishops in the corners - hypermodern, fianchetto one or both bishops and than push the paws, which are usually backed by queen and/or rook in the middle

- some setups are close enough to the standard set, so the principles of classic c4, d4, e4, f4 type opennings are worth considering

- white appears to have bigger first move advantage than in standard chess, so attack and force moves if you can, and black's postion quickly gets out of whack quickly

- as black, I often end up building a 'fortress' around the black king first, inviting white to attack and than hope for an opportunity to counterattack.

i'm relatively new to playing chess960, i evaluate the opening position simply by trying develop my minor pieces while at the same time trying to not open up any files or diagonals leading to my king.

I am a yield-the-center-attack-from-sides guy. So, if I'm white, I think about where my bishops and knights are. Bishop's future is extremely important because unlike knights, it's much sensitie to pawn structures. So, where I would like my bishops, tells me which pawns to push.

Recently I won a game in 13 moves! Because my bishops were already pointing towards one side of the board, and my queen and rook were on files on the same side. So, I made a fiancheto, then backed up by pushing all my pawns on the opponent's weak side. The attack was crushing.

One other thing I consider is weak pawns in my starting position. But instead of thinking short-term to defend them, I think of active play to undermine such weaknesses. In one of my games my opponent's (with white) early attempt to utilize an unprotected a2 pawn backlashed, and I got the initiative with black from early on. I won that game.

Last is my king's future. Whether I am going to castle at all, and where to.

It usually takes me seing the position today. Coming back to it at night. Looking at my opponent's move with the same position against me (if they have already made their own move). Then I make a move in my 3rd or 4th analysis. Though, some positions are easier to decide on.

A few things I look at in evaluating the 960 setup:

- Are there any pawn unprotected? Always keep an eye on these in the first few moves. In earlier games I tend to attack these pawns but that destroyed a good opening in quite some cases.

- Which pieces are hardest to develop, try to figure out how to activate all pieces while not overextending your pawns. Especially cornered bishops can be easily blocked by pawns. Try to prevent blocking pawns by knights. Queen is easiest to develop, don't worry too much about that. Besides that, develop the queen not too early.

- Try to keep the opponent's knight out of your camp with the right pawn move. Knights can do nasty things in 960.

- Castling is only usefull if the king is well protected by pawns. I tend to not castle when a2-b2 (or g2-h2) (g7-h7/a7-b7 for black) are there but c2/f2 (f7/c7) not. King can be safer in current position and rook can be activated by rook lift.

Have fun  !!!

I like the accidental in 960 ,amazing things happen all by themselves!