I'm not really a "higher rated player" but I think you've just said it yourself:
Its a great way of training tactics rather than just remembring lines. I've never played it but I'd like to try it.
Of course regular chess is more effective in most ways. But it's better for variety and fun. Also, i think it's a good way of staying creative, very important:)
I've played it quite a bit over at schemingmind.com. The first few games felt very much like playing chess while drunk, and one has to carefully rethink everything about chess before the first move.
In general I like the idea, though I'm not fond of Fischer's notion about how to castle in this variant.
I've played it at 64squar.es, although they didn't implement the castling rules by Fischer's rules, so technically it wasn't Chess960, but something very much like it.
I like it. It's Chess, but different. It makes you think starting on turn 1, instead of (for me) about turn 3 or 4, or for a high rated chess player some time around turn 15. The biggest difference other than the memorization factor that I've noticed is that with a queen or bishop in the corner, it's very easy to attack the long diagonal.
For people who live in the Detroit area, there will be an over the board tournament of Chess960 held in Canton, Michigan on Sunday, September 28, 2008. That is almost official. I'll post an official event announcement within a week or so. Look for it on the calendar.
Or Fischer Random Chess, was a chess variant created by the late Bobby Fischer. My question is has anyone ever played Chess960, and if so can you please compare it's merits to that of traditional chess? While I've never played it, it would seem that Chess960's goal, which was to "create a chess variant in which chess creativity and talent would be more important than memorization and analysis of opening moves," would be appreciated by those in the chess community who think of, and thus approach, chess as an artform; but I'm just a beginner of traditional chess as it is, so I don't want to presume how higher ranked players feel about Fischer Random in comparison to traditional chess.
Any insight would be appreciated.