Chess 960 openings: initial considerations

Before playing the first move, one can have a mental checklist:

1. Are there undefended or weak pawns?  Sometimes an undefended pawn is sitting in front of the bishop.

2. How might one eventually castle? For example, if there is a bishop tandem in one corner, one will have to move one or both pawns in front of those bishops to develop them, so it is less likely that one would castle on that side.

3. With the knights: Is there knight opposition? Are the knights on the same colored squares, or not? If yes, they might work in tandem.

4. Is there a potential fianchetto or other bishop/queen diagonal that needs initial consideration?

Only after working through this initial 4-point checklist will one be prepared to even consider one's first move in Chess 960!!

Is there another point or two that one might add to the list?

Is good to castle or not? Sometimes not.

#2 Castling. Castling may be less secure on the side that one is forced to move pawns forward for development, as happens with a bishop tandem in the corner.  One set-up that I played is BBRKQNRN (which is the order seen from the White side, or with White at the bottom of the board in a diagram).  My opponent, Black, actually did castle on the side with the bishops originally at a8 and b8, but then he moved his a-pawn a7-a6 to bring out his b-bishop with Ba7. So after castling, his king was at c-8 with a pawn in front for protection, while I castled on the side away from the bishops and had a better game.

I will diagram the BBRKQNRN set-up mentioned above, as it illustrates some of the factors needing consideration for castling in Chess 960.

Without my having found material on Chess 960 play, I am putting out some ideas in orderly form to promote discussion.  I am striving above all for the clarity that brings consensus and want to avoid above all the kind of argumentation that only distracts.  Since the second poster mentioned castling, I decided to starting with castling considerations, my second point in the Chess 960 opening considerations.

#2  CASTLING CONSIDERATIONS in 960:

1. King’s Pawn Protection (fianchetto possible?)

2. Castling Conveniency vs. Obstructions

3. Rook Development/Rook Pins

4. Delayed Castling

#2  CASTLING CONSIDERATIONS in 960: 3. Rook Development /Rook Pins.  This fictitious position is based on a real starting position, BBRK-QNRN.

In some 960 positions the king and rook just exchange places for castling, so a PIN is created if the opponent’s rook has an open file to the king pawn.  In the following real game position, that pin allows a devastating knight fork!

On step 4 in the opening post:

4. Is there a potential fianchetto or other bishop/queen diagonal that needs initial consideration?

if I'm playing blitz I will look for the position of the Q or K relative to a bishop. The trick is that what ever more valuable piece is directly next to the bishop can be attacked by the bishop. So for example in SP's that have ***BQ*** you instantly know that the queen can be diagonally attacked by the bishop and can either plan to exploit it or defend against it. That is one of the main reason why standard chess SP518 has so many tactics in the opening, because of the combination BQKB.