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Traditional starting position in 960?

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WizardLaboratory

Just curious. Has anyone ever been given a traditional starting position in Chess960 on chess.com or otherwise?

Technically it is one of the 960 possibilities so it is not all that unlikely. (Position 518 in the link below).

https://chess960.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/chess960-starting-positions.pdf

I just wonder if we are actually all playing Chess959. Should it even be a possibility to get a normal position in a game that is designed to avoid it? Thoughts?

For instance, in a live 960 tournament would/should the organizers allow a traditional position between say Caruana and Nakamura if that was the result of the random computer shuffle?

KeSetoKaiba

I've never got this "traditional" setup in 960, but I did get one game where it was really similar. I think the Knights were swapped with the Bishops, but the rest was the same (Rooks in corners and King with Queen in the center). To be fair though, that little difference was still a bit weird to play and even then opening theory means nothing wink.png

Strangemover

I have never seen it. Defeats the purpose I suppose. I have also never seen a king in a corner square - is this a non-possibility? 

1818-1828271

Strangemover wrote:

I have never seen it. Defeats the purpose I suppose. I have also never seen a king in a corner square - is this a non-possibility? 

Yes, that is a non-possibility. The king must have a rook on each side to castle either way legally. (I'm not just inferring this - it's a rule in the setup of the game)

Strangemover

Cheers, I suspected that was the case. 

WizardLaboratory

I am going to maintain the conspiracy theory that we are all actually playing Chess 959 until proven otherwise!

Michael-Holm

I've gotten the traditional starting position in 960 before. Not on chess.com though. I think it was on lichess. It was strange because at first I didn't notice and so I approached the position as I would any other 960 position. I thought, "Hmm, e4 looks like a good move." Then I realized that all of the pieces were on their normal squares tongue.png

WizardLaboratory
Vicariously-I wrote:

I've gotten the traditional starting position in 960 before. Not on chess.com though. I think it was on lichess. It was strange because at first I didn't notice and so I approached the position as I would any other 960 position. I thought, "Hmm, e4 looks like a good move." Then I realized that all of the pieces were on their normal squares

Haha I like that story 

willitrhyme

I, too, once received the standard starting position in a 960 game, but it was on lichess.

vinsanity68

I've played the normal position on lichess twice.   Here is the link of the latest: https://lichess.org/jh8eIW3ZnnFW

MJE01

Actually it is possible according to this website (which has all the 960 opening positions):
https://www.mark-weeks.com/cfaa/chess960/c960strt.htm

The 518th starting position is the normal one (RNBQKBNR)

KeSetoKaiba

Wow, imagine playing 960 to avoid opening theory and then getting "unlucky" with a 1 in 960 chance and getting a "regular" game grin.png

MJE01
KeSetoKaiba wrote:

Wow, imagine playing 960 to avoid opening theory and then getting "unlucky" with a 1 in 960 chance and getting a "regular" game

It is a 0.10417% chance of getting that

TURKEYD1N05AUR
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MACchessSA

Dumb question:  Is there a way to challenge the bots to 960 chess?  I do not see an automatic setup feature

marcrob

Of course there's the mirror of the standard starting position to worry about

Optimissed

Good point. I expect they filter it out.