Chess960

Chess960, or Chess960, originally known as Fischer Random Chess, is a technology developed by chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer chess variant with 960 possible different starting positions. Strictly speaking, it is a generalization of chess by an almost arbitrary arrangement of the well-known chess pieces on the back rank of each party.

This variant was introduced for the first time on 19 June 1996 in Buenos Aires. Fischer's goal was to develop a chess variant, which put more emphasis on creativity and the player's talent than on memorization and analysis of opening. This should be achieved by random opening positions, which can be a memorization of opening moves appear unhelpful.

The rules for Chess960 were from the World Chess Federation FIDE as part of the rules of chess in its regulations ( " Laws of Chess", Appendix F) was added in 2009.

• 5.1 With a cube
• 5.2 Non- random setup

• 9.1 operation
• Table 9.2 King
• 9.3 Table Runner
• 9.4 number at the appropriate position

Opening positions

The opening positions in Chess960 must meet the following rules:

• The white pawns on their usual positions.
• All remaining white pieces are in the front row.
• The white king is placed between the white towers.
• A white runner is set to white and the other in black.
• The black pieces are placed according to the white mirror symmetry. If, for example, the white king on f1, so the black king is placed on f8.

The number of 960 possible starting positions resulting from combinatorial considerations: For every runner there are four possible fields; according to their positions remain five or four options for the lady six, then for the two jumpers. The rest is mandatory, because the king is not distinguishable between the two towers. In distinguishing the Springer thus would result in 4 × 4 × 6 × 5 × 4 = 1920 possible opening positions. But not even the jumpers are distinguishable, this number is to halve, which then leads to the 960 variations.

If the opening position once found a normal game of chess is played virtually. All figures follow the known from the normal rules of chess.

Castlings

Castling rules

As in normal chess is allowed per game each player to castle once in Chess960. Since the positions of the king and the towers do not necessarily correspond to regular positions, castling must be redefined:

• After the c- castling ( corresponding to the long castling ) the king is on the c-file, the rochierende tower on the d-line.
• After the g - castling (corresponding to the short castling ) the king is on the g-line, the rochierende tower on the f-file.

• Contrary to the usual restriction that the king can not exceed occupied space in the castling, he may at Chess960 exceed the field on which the rochierende tower stood. However, this is the only figure whose place of the king can cross at the castling.

Further, these conventional rules apply:

• All fields between the start and goal box (included) of King and rochierendem tower must be free of other figures.
• A player may only castle when pre neither the question nor the king tower were moved.
• The King may stand either before or after castling in chess and cross no endangered field.

As a corollary we obtain:

• Each player can at most once per game castle.
• Corresponds to the opening position of the normal chess, as well as the normal castling rules are valid.
• King and rook can not skip any characters other than each other.
• By castling no figure can be beaten.
• In some opening positions positions can be occupied by castling, which are free in normal chess. ( For example, the A-line after the great castling be occupied. )
• In some opening positions it is possible that only the tower or just the King will move during castling. This occurs at Ta1/b1, Kc 1; Th1, K g1 or Ke/f/g1, Td1; Kb/c/d/e1, Tf1
• It is possible that king and rook at the castling pull in the same direction. In the c- castling, this occurs, for example, at Kb1, Ta1 or Kf1, Te1 (or according to the 8th row ) on.

The castling process

When playing with a human opponent at a physical board is recommended that the king is placed in the castling only outside of the board next to his future field, then set the tower on its final position, and finally the King is set to its final position. This rule is easy to follow and shows the planned train is unambiguous.

There is now a system of WNCA that when castling embodiment, the contact order does not matter. All the characters involved in a train must not be touched any. When castling are the king and rook at capture moves are pulling figure and prey figure. However Especially with players, dealing with new Chess960, it may be appropriate to announce a castling in order to prevent misunderstandings. If played with a chess clock, so pressing the clock can be seen as a sign that a Rochadezug has now been fully executed.

Ambiguities of castling rules

Many publications castling rules seem to be, unfortunately, ambiguous. For example, write the first publications by Eric van Reem and chessvariants.com not expressly provide that the fields between the king and his new position must be free. As a result, some players thought that relied on it that the king should at castling skip other stones.

2003 David A. Wheeler interviewed many active " Fischer Random Chess" player, in order to determine the exact rules among them Eric van Reem, Hans -Walter Schmitt and R. Scharnagl. They all agreed that the king should not cross occupied space, with the exception of the field of rochierenden tower.

Even in classical chess castling is prohibited as a figure between king and tower stands. Since the Chess960 is a compatible superset of the traditional chess game, so may still be beaten about skipped during a castling neither third figures.

Castling in chess game on computers or servers

In games against the computer or a program on a chess server normally a separate menu item, or button for the short and long castling is available. Also recognize good chess programs in some trains of the king that only a castling can be meant, and complete the train by itself. The following gestures are recommended: the king moves to be at least two steps distant castling target field or otherwise participating in the tower, so as to avoid confusion with possible simple royal trains. In some user interfaces is also the textual input of castling as " 0-0 " or " 0-0-0 " is possible.

There are different approaches to signal clearly to a program through its GUI castling. A clear provision applies, for example, to in SMIRF: is the target field of the king at least two fields away, the king moves there, otherwise ' pushes ' ​​the king briefly involved Tower for castling.

If electronic chess, recognize the positions of the figures on the basis of sensors are used, one should take only king and rook from the board and then they put on their new positions.

The game

The openings of Chess960 are not yet well studied, but there are some fundamental principles here, including:

• The king should be protected.
• The control of the central fields remains important.
• The figures should be developed as in normal chess quickly, with the low-order ( bishop, knight ) have priority.
• In some starting positions there are unprotected farmers on whose protection you should look out for.

Some argue that with each position opening two games with color change for the players should be made, as some opening positions for white are very beneficial.

The notation

Since the opening position in the rule is different in normal chess, it must be noted in the notation.

Games, which are listed by the Portable Game Notation (PGN ), the opening position can hold using the Forsyth -Edwards Notation ( FEN ) as the value of the " FEN " tag. Castling is as recorded in normal chess, as 0-0 or 0-0-0.

It is claimed to record " Fischer Random Chess " games in PGN correctly, an additional " Variant " must be set tag to identify the rules. That's not true, and it reflects only shortcomings of the Winboard protocol resist. Indeed, it is sufficient, the "SetUp " tag in conjunction with the " FEN " tag for unambiguous characterization eg a Chess960 starting position to use. Traditional games are to recognize this tag already on the absence. From the information encoded in a FEN castling rights is clearly determine whether it is the artificial Winboard versions " normal", " nocastle " or " fish random" acts. If a chess program evaluates this information may not, so it does not lie on the PGN.

Castling rights in the FEN usually relate to the extremely -standing tower of an affected site. FEN is able to capture all possible starting positions of Fischer Random Chess. But she is not able to encode all those positions a game of applicable where two towers stand on one side of the king and castling specifically with the inner tower is permitted. It was a modification of FEN (X- FEN ) developed to solve this problem by only in precisely such cases, the column letter ( great for white ) the associated traditional symbol ( "K ", " k", "Q" or " q " ) replaced. This backward-compatible extension means that the representations of the 18 pseudo - FRC starting positions ( King and towers to traditional positions ) remain the same.

Methods used to determine the starting position

There are many methods auszulosen the opening position. In major tournaments simply with a computer ( or cubes ) is a random number 1-960 determined and used to calculate a position. This starting position is then visible as projected for all participants in a wall and announced it.

A chess clock was put on the market that displays a random start position for Chess960 click of a button for individual games already.

With a cube

Ingo Althöfer proposed the following method in 1998 to auszuwürfeln the opening position with only one die:

• The first litter is before the field for the dark-squared bishop of white. The black boxes according to the number of links are counted starting from (a1, c1, e1, g1). Since the litters 5 and 6 have no equivalents, they are repeated.
• In the same way, then the white bishop is positioned. Herein, the fields B1, D1, F1, H1 litters 1, 2, 3, 4
• The next litter is, again counting from the left, the position of the lady on the remaining free fields.
• Upcoming Litters position the jumpers on the remaining open fields. For the first diver must at a 6 again be thrown, for the second at 5 and 6
• Finally, a white tower is placed on the first free from left field, the king on the second and a tower on the remaining last field.

With this method, we can produce 960 different starting positions that occur with equal probability. One of these positions is the normal chess opening position, which then leads to a normal chess game.

Not random setups

The opening position is not necessarily random. It can, for example, a tournament roster are set, or the players agree on a position opening.

Edward Northam recommended the following procedure to create the opening position without aids can:

A precursor of this method was 1921, free chess, which was developed by Erich Brunner.

History

The first " Fischer Random Chess " tournament was played in 1996 in Yugoslavia and was won by Péter Lékó.

2001 acquired Lékó - by defeating Michael Adams in an 8- game match in the Mainz Chess Classic - the right in 2003 to play for the world championship. For this match there was no qualification ( which did not exist even in the first normal chess world championships), but both players were at this time among the top 5 of the normal world chess rankings. Lékó was chosen because he was the one introduced many innovations in chess theory and was on the other winners of last year's tournament. To this end, he had played with Fischer himself Fischer Random Chess. Adams was chosen because it led the world rankings in the Blitz and was considered extremely strong player in unusual situations. The match ended with 4.5: 3.5.

2002 held at the Chess Classic in Mainz Chess Tigers a Chess960 Open with over 130 participants and over 50 titled players. One of them was the Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler. Although he stumbled at the start of the tournament, but after a furious comeback, he heaved himself still at # 1 and qualified as for an official match for the World Champion crown. In addition, in 2002 Fischer Random Chess / Chess960 was elected in April 2002 by ChessVariants.com to "Recognized Variant of the Month" and the Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić published his book Shall We Play Pisces Random Chess? , Which helped this variant more popularity.

One year later, was then discharged the first official Chess960 World Championship Peter Svidler and between Péter Lékó in the Chess Classic, which with the Russian 4.5: 3.5 decided for themselves. The parallel running Chess960 Open attracted 179 players, including 50 grandmasters. It was Levon Aronian of, the Armenians living in Germany and Junior World Champion of 2002, won. This earned as the right to challenge the first official Chess960 World Champion in history next year.

Svidler defended within the framework of the Mainz Chess Classic 2004 his world title against Levon Aronian by a 4,5:3,5 victory. In the open Chess960 tournament ( the FiNet Open ) participated 207 chess players. The winner was Zoltán Almási from Hungary, so that was allowed in 2005 to play against the now already two -time world champion Svidler.

And in 2005, history repeated itself, as Svidler 4.5: 3.5 triumphed against Almasi and thus achieved the hattrick. When his challenger Levon Aronian has qualified himself as he again won the FiNet - open and so in 2006 a second - was trying to become Chess960 World Champion - this time successful. In parallel, the first Chess960 Computer World Championship was held in 2005, which surprisingly won the program Spike by Ralf Schäfer and Volker Böhm.

In 2006, Svidler was succeeded by his challenger Aronian 5: 3 defeated, so that Aronian is Chess960 World Champion. The computer world championship was won this year by Shredder.

2007 defended Aronian at the Chess Classic Mainz successfully defend his title against Viswanathan Anand, while Victor Bologan won the Chess960 Open.

Rybka won at the 2007 Chess960 computer world championship and defended both in 2008 and in 2009 his Chess960 computer world championship title. 2009, the last Chess960 Computer World Championship as part of the Chess Classic in Mainz.

World Champion

Naming

This chess variant is known by different names. Among the first names that were given to her, are Fischer Random Chess Random Chess and fish.

Hans -Walter Schmitt ( Chairman of the Frankfurt Chess Tigers eV ) is a proponent of this chess variant and he started to look for a new name, which should meet the following requirements:

As a result of this search, the new name Chess960 was found, derived from the number of possible starting positions.

Meanwhile, the terms Fischer Random Chess Random Chess or fish are less common than the new name Chess960.

Two -Table view

The Chess960 numbering scheme is a simple representation in the form of two tables. In addition, a direct derivation of start positions of each number from 1 to 960 exists

Operation

The two tables are used to instant recognition of any Chess960 starting positions on the home row of white to the drawn numbers 1-960 (or 0 and 959 ). Find out first in the premier table the same or the next smaller number. Then determine the difference (0 to 15) for solute number and determine in the table runner the matching runner -up. Now place the first two runners according to the first basic series, then the six characters from the found row of Table King on the six remaining there free parking. The black pieces are finally in mirror symmetry situated to the basic series of white.

Example: We consider the starting position 518 in the table we find the King No. 512 " TSDKST ". For the residual value of 6, we see the runners table at No. 6 "- L - L - ". Overall, therefore, this resulted for the SP -518 = 512 6 known preparation " TSLDKLST " for white from the traditional chess.

Royal table

Table runners

Number at a given position

The two tables are also suitable to derive from a given installation, the associated position buzzer. For example, if the sequence " TLLKSSDT " before, one breaks them down into the runners - positioning " -LL -----", for which one finds the index 4, and in the consequence of the rest of the figures " TKSSDT ", which number the is assigned 736. Generally speaking, therefore the sum of 736 4 740 the position number