I really like Chess960 and I am exploring and analysing it by playing "Advanced Chess960". I cannot play it here at Chess.com unfortunately but am trying to help Chess.com Chess960 players as much as I can with general principals about it (refer to my homepage). "Advanced Chess" was conceived by Garry Kasparov in 1998. Two players declare up front before the game that they will be using a computer to assist them. By doing so silly blunders are removed from the game and we can try out ideas that would otherwise not be possible because of the very high probability that either player spoils the idea with a blunder.

Although "Advanced Chess" for standard chess (SP518) is of dubious benefit, I do not think this is the case in Chess960. You will learn a lot about chess generally playing this way because there is very little stress and a lot of light, and the strategies you learn you can confidently take away with you when you play unassisted human to human 960 games in a real club environment. Both ways of playing complement each other.

No one on this planet knows the general truth about the balance of Chess960 (I suspect that Bobby Fischer did and that is why he advocated Chess960). Advanced Chess960 is probably the only way to search it out, until we get a solid base of professional chess players playing it. I'm convinced that in Advanced Chess960, winning and loosing still comes down to human skill even when both players are using computers. This is because in this era computers do not have a large enough search horizon to understand the Chess960 opening and even aspects of the midgame beyond a superficial understanding.

If you try this way of playing 960, you quickly realize just how open a selection of moves are actually available to us, all differentiated by merely a question of taste or the subtlest of distinctions. In Advanced Chess960, you will enjoy just as much the spectacular variations of the games that were NOT played, as much as those that were played. The computer helps us to see those variations and to record them down for later study.

I have started an Advanced Chess960 community where we can discuss ideas, strategies, skills and experiences that we discover but there is not much activity because Advanced Chess960 is not advocated here at Chess.com. However there is so much to explore in Chess960........

"Chess is a beautiful forest. Chess960 is the Amazon Jungle"

http://chess960jungle.blogspot.com/

Enjoy 960.

glider1001