I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too
That's quite a feat, sir. Assuming each and every one of these games were played in exactly 1 minute, you two would have spent all 16 hours a person should stay awake during the day - not to mention other minor disturbances, such as arranging the pieces, bathroom break and feeding. Are both of you kinda murky in Math?
I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too
That's quite a feat, sir. Assuming each and every one of these games were played in exactly 1 minute, you two would have spent all 16 hours a person should stay awake during the day - not to mention other minor disturbances, such as arranging the pieces, bathroom break and feeding. Are both of you kinda murky in Math?
As a matter of fact, I am the top mathmatician in my grade. I have an 8th grade reading level and I excell in math. As said earlier. My friend needs a bit of a helping hand, though.
I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too
That's quite a feat, sir. Assuming each and every one of these games were played in exactly 1 minute, you two would have spent all 16 hours a person should stay awake during the day - not to mention other minor disturbances, such as arranging the pieces, bathroom break and feeding. Are both of you kinda murky in Math?
As a matter of fact, I am the top mathmatician in my grade. I have an 8th grade reading level and I excell in math. As said earlier. My friend needs a bit of a helping hand, though.
Hilarious!
I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too
That's quite a feat, sir. Assuming each and every one of these games were played in exactly 1 minute, you two would have spent all 16 hours a person should stay awake during the day - not to mention other minor disturbances, such as arranging the pieces, bathroom break and feeding. Are both of you kinda murky in Math?
As a matter of fact, I am the top mathmatician in my grade. I have an 8th grade reading level and I excell in math. As said earlier. My friend needs a bit of a helping hand, though.
Hilarious!
Jshark1 well done for doing that best wishes to you. Whatever time you did it in, your time was well spent. I can recommend to you to study the Chess960 positions systematically again more slowly over a period of say one year with your friend. I am in the middle of doing this right now. It is a wonderful exercise because if you go through them number by number systematically, the chess positions change just enough to make you think, but not enough to confuse you. To me the Chess960 positions are like reading the greatest book on chess ever written, page by page, number by number. Whole subsets of positions have similar themes and characters almost like chapters in a book. It's just that the book was written by no-one!
Enjoy
Just curious, glider; when you say you're going through them systematically, are you just making notes about each position? Are you exploring opening moves (for just a few ply)? Or are you just spending a few seconds on each, pondering quickly what might arise?
Neil
Hi Mm40 great question. I do not want to take over Jsharks1's thread here but I have a blog about 960 over at http://chess960jungle.blogspot.com/ where I am really keen to help people enjoy Chess960. Firstly you need a basic idea of a generally good principal for playing the Chess960 opening. You then use that principal like a pair of glasses to systematically examine the positions looking for exceptions and gradually forging greater and greater understanding from that (see the blog for a generally reasonable way of playing the opening as a starter). So instead of a tree of specific moves, you have a tree of "conceptual principals and exceptions" that form branches off the main conceptual trunk. After some time, the opening principals shapes into something useful that you know when to use and when not to use.
For me personally the way that I systematically go through the positions is to play each position by number incrementally, as white and as black in a 15min/side game against an engine (for me Rybka4960). Always the rule that I make for myself is always to study the position number after playing black. Yes the idea is to look at the underlying concepts and so the approach is a lateral study rather than a deep study in one position. It only takes a year or two to go through the positions systematically if you dedicate 2-3 hours a day to it. Remember that there really is only 480 positions to get a basic flavour of what is going on. The other 480 positions are mirrors that are fundamentally different because of castling. For example SP518 and SP524 are both the traditional position except for the asymmetry of castling.
What you look for are standout features in the engine's variation output. Even the best Chess960 engines are incapable of playing the Chess960 opening really well, but with a human eye you can quickly steer the engine into the main ideas. I usually stick to the first 5 main lines the engine finds at whatever ply depth I have the patience to wait for. Once you get really good at using the engine, you can get the coarse main ideas in less then 15 minutes. Then note them down in the PGN and save it to a database or blog about it!
(Often, even if you do not find the main ideas to play, then you find the main ideas not to play! The negated version is often more informative!)
But here is where the real bonus of studying the Chess960 positions incrementally by number lies. Each position is quite intimitely related to it's companion positions either adjacent or if not immediately, then in larger subset's of start numbers. So you get to see the patterns much better this way than if you study Chess960 openings randomly (not a good idea for study but great for playing!). It's hard to explain unless you do it. The mind finds patterns when things are not changing randomly, put it like that. Remember though that when it comes time to play a game, you have the concepts behind you so the unknown start position is not an issue but an enjoyable challenge.
For example recently I've gone through variations in the range 200-240. There you will get a good lot of contemplative study on the knights playing out to their traditional position (Nc3/Nf3) but gradually number by number the great "book of 960" throws out the positions of the other pieces and then the knights. The numbering is not always consequtive, but always within a range of numberings, you do get similar patterns and ideas turning up. Another amazing series is from 70-90 which are great studies in knight predominant tactics.
The Chess960 "great book" of general Chess is like the colour wheel where there are various coarse and subtle changes in "theme" as you move through the 960 wheel. It's a very enjoyable journey to take. Monumental but enjoyable! Think of it like climbing a mountain.
Enjoy 960!
PS) I personally use Fritz12 software which fundamentally supports Chess960 but there are other very good choices as well. The software allows you to play by SP number and has built in features for 960 databasing and you can hook up the opening reference library in Fritz to the CCRL Chess960 database of 80,000 or so round the clock chess960 games that are being played by the engines.
Jshark1 well done for doing that best wishes to you. Whatever time you did it in, your time was well spent. I can recommend to you to study the Chess960 positions systematically again more slowly over a period of say one year with your friend. I am in the middle of doing this right now. It is a wonderful exercise because if you go through them number by number systematically, the chess positions change just enough to make you think, but not enough to confuse you. To me the Chess960 positions are like reading the greatest book on chess ever written, page by page, number by number. Whole subsets of positions have similar themes and characters almost like chapters in a book. It's just that the book was written by no-one!
Enjoy
Yep. We actually started a little club. I have a nice treehouse and the only problem with the treehouse is it has a few daddy longleg spiders. But that's it. Other than the wind bothering us sometimes we have a lot of fun playing chess and fisher random. We have 5 people in the club now. And every other day we play against each other and we sometimes bring a computer up there and we team practice openings. I have totally mastered a counter attack for the two knight opening. And that is instead of blocking the check with bishop from the queen attack, you defend with queen. that leaves a space for white to move his king to. It has a great defence and opens up a king side attack pinning the king for black. If you play it right you can make a queen with a pawn taking a pinned rook causing check mate with a rook taking the second rank. It is an awsome way to completely throw your opponents attack rrrrrrrrrrrrrrright out the door. =)
I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too
That's quite a feat, sir. Assuming each and every one of these games were played in exactly 1 minute, you two would have spent all 16 hours a person should stay awake during the day - not to mention other minor disturbances, such as arranging the pieces, bathroom break and feeding. Are both of you kinda murky in Math?
As a matter of fact, I am the top mathmatician in my grade. I have an 8th grade reading level and I excell in math. As said earlier. My friend needs a bit of a helping hand, though.
Hilarious!
Actually, considering I am in fourth grade, that means I read 4 grades ahead. I was reading Harry Potter at the age of 5.
Just curious, glider; when you say you're going through them systematically, are you just making notes about each position? Are you exploring opening moves (for just a few ply)? Or are you just spending a few seconds on each, pondering quickly what might arise?
Neil
Actually, what I do, in my little club, I play on the computer and look for nice attacks for white and black. I share the info with the others, of course.
Jshark yes you have got the spirit. Computers are just there to help us with ideas. If you really want to improve at Chess960 over the next few years, include your friends in what you learn. Even if you start to beat them more often, they will still come up with some good ideas in the Chess960 openings. For the next few years I doubt that computers will understand Chess960 openings particularly well. Your eye and your friends eyes will be very important to pick the main ideas. Yes the computer is an invaluable tool to help pick up the blunders.
Keep up the good work! One day you could be the first in your town/city to organise your own Chess960 club/school/tournament. There are a very few people doing it right now. Don't let the critics get to you.
By the way if you can solve SP248 you are doing better than me! If you like tactics go for this one!:
The features are the undefended b-pawn and the diagonal bishop attacks on the king. There are just so many ways to go wrong with it. Note also just how hard it will be for black to castle away from the threats. Actually perhaps it is best to castle into them!
Enjoy 960
Sorry I have not been on very much, I hope I didn't dissapoint you guys. I was stuck with other problems, so I didn't have the time. I promise I will find time every day to write on this. Don't lose hope in me!
John
I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too
That's quite a feat, sir. Assuming each and every one of these games were played in exactly 1 minute, you two would have spent all 16 hours a person should stay awake during the day - not to mention other minor disturbances, such as arranging the pieces, bathroom break and feeding. Are both of you kinda murky in Math?
As a matter of fact, I am the top mathmatician in my grade. I have an 8th grade reading level and I excell in math. As said earlier. My friend needs a bit of a helping hand, though.
Hilarious!
Actually, considering I am in fourth grade, that means I read 4 grades ahead. I was reading Harry Potter at the age of 5.
You must take calculus in 8th grade.
I like chess960 because there are so many ways to play. me and a friend played all 960 ways in one day. took all day, too