Magnus v The World Discussion - Chess Forums

ItsTwoDuece

Mar 19, 2025

0

#1

Hi, I don't see a thread for this yet but wanted to get some thoughts out on the 960 position we're looking at. Here it is (Chess960 position #458 fyi):

My first impressions:
It looks pretty clear that we want to castle to b8 here, provided the knights can be developed quickly. The big question is how the kingside will develop (kingside relative to standard setup- files e-h).
Here are some ideal setups that came to mind:

One position this latter idea is bringing to mind though is that from Magnus Carlsen vs. Chao Li 2015 Qatar Masters, shown here: (This is a really cool game btw, one of my favorites. Go check it out if you haven't!)

Of course, it would be quite a stretch to try to make concrete analytical comparisons between the positions, but it does maybe give credence to some kingside castling setup in our 960 position. The hang up with this idea, to me, is that it's quite difficult to get the queen out of the way. If you believe in this setup and have some ideas though, do share.

Obviously all of this hasn't been considering White's opening moves, and rather than getting in the weeds there I think it's easiest to consider what to do whether White focuses on the light squares or dark squares in the center. For example, an early e4 could make it difficult to go for the f5 option. Because of this, 1... Nc6 seems like a safe bet in essentially all lines so we don't commit to a specific queenside setup too quickly. An early g6 is also fairly reasonable I would argue. I also think it's pretty important to prefer Nb6 over Nd6, as we probably don't want our centers mobility to be hindered by the knight, and at least in my mind it is too risky to commit to d5 so early before that knight develops. This Nd6?! is my biggest concern in the vote chess format, as I think a lot of players will naturally think that moving the knight closer to the center is better.
I'm not gonna be the guy bold enough to propose specific opening approaches that Magnus could take though.
Anyways this is just initial considerations. Looking forward to hearing other ideas.

Additional info:
This low depth position was provided by Andrew Grant's full 960 earlygame analysis:

This does seem to reinforce the Nb6 (in this case b3) concept I mentioned, and gives a third setup option for us to consider:

I considered g5 here because I'm a bit concerned about that bishop being a target with g6. Meanwhile I don't see good prospects for the dark bishop for developing along the a3 diagonal; here we are playing for some e5 I'm thinking.

This database has some games from this position, but I didn't get anything good from it. Also, black has no wins from here, which is fun. https://www.schemingmind.com/home/gameexplorer.aspx
Happy analyzing!

Martin_Stahl

Mar 19, 2025

0

#2

There's a discussion section in the Vote Chess game itself.

ItsTwoDuece

Mar 19, 2025

0

#3

Martin_Stahl wrote:

There's a discussion section in the Vote Chess game itself.

Thanks, I didn't see it on my first look srry

AssaultingChicken

Mar 19, 2025

0

#4

We can bribe Hikaru and spam his junk email folder

(this comment is a joke don’t take it seriously)