white to move:
Everyday Chess 960 tactics
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white's last move was g4, black to move:
I have finished a couple of games now and I have to say that I like Chess 960 correspondence more than conventional. I have read opinions in other threads according to which the opening position may be very unfavourable to black right on the first move or that it is very difficult to make a useful middlegame plan. Yes, the opening position can be very tricky, there can be undefended pawns ( which is impossible in conventional chess where every pawn is defended at least once ) and I have suffered some painful defeats right in the first three moves. These games certainly would not have been lost in conventional chess since equipped with an opening book you simply can't make devastating mistakes on the first three moves. But this only taught me the lesson to look for undefended pawns and try to make sense of the opening position before making any move. I also don't agree that you are not able to make middle game plans. You can, but you have to use you creativity and imagination. It can be difficult but it is doable. This is what I like in Chess 960. I don't have to face the same well known situations over and over again and try to find out what people before me have already found out much better.
I wonder if you can spot the move here.
White to move:
I decided to entirely switch my correspondence play to Chess 960. While it is undoubtedly useful for your openings to play correspondence chess with the aid of opening books I have always felt that it is not me who is playing the game. The opening is played by someone else and the game is not mine anymore. I also want to look at chess openings with a fresh eye since the opening is my main weakness (or at least I feel insecure at openings).
In Chess 960 tactics come up earlier and more easily since the position is unfamiliar and pieces are placed in a 'weird' way.
To start with, this is an easy one from one of my recent games (from the opening black came out with a bad pawn structure, that's why the black king is so exposed):