Since I haven't seen it posted yet, the math for the 960 positions is:
- 4 ways to place the dark bishop
- 4 ways to place the light bishop
- 6 ways to place the queen once the bishops are on the board
- 10 ways to place the two knights in the five spaces left
- 1 way to place the rooks and the king in the three spaces left (since the king has to be in the middle)
That's 4 x 4 x 6 x 10 = 960 possible positions.
I have a few questions about how the game Chess960.
1) Why is it called so? I was thinking that perhaps there are 960 different possible ways to set up the back rank. Is this the case?
2) When setting up the board (for OTB), do the two bishops HAVE to be on opposite colours?
Thank you for your time.