Chess Variants
Chess960: When Bobby Fischer Fixed Chess
“I hate chess.” — Robert James Fischer
Bobby Fischer is arguably the greatest chess player of all time. He was the 11th World Chess Champion and a tremendously dominating chess prodigy. He dominated the game at the beginning of the 70s and held the title for 3 years. He retired from chess in 1975 after refusing to play for the World Championship title.
In this article, we will explore the chess variant invented by Fischer: Chess960, or Fischer Random Chess.
Why was Chess960 invented?
Chess has been played for a long time all over the world. Professional chess players, teams, coaches, and most effectively computers have been analyzing the game and its theory to improve their play for many years. Almost all of the openings in the game have been analyzed at a very deep level.
There are deep analyses not only for the openings but also for the mid-game and end-game. Especially with the involvement of computers and software, all this preparation and memorization have changed how the game is played.
Fischer said “Chess in just the last few years has changed dramatically with all of this computer stuff. But really, if you analyze Chess objectively… very, very objectively, it’s been a lousy game going back even to the time of Morphy. There were a lot of books!”
According to Bobby Fischer, high-level players are capable of memorizing chess openings for very long patterns and this is making chess a “lousy game”. Less and less talent in the calculation is required with all the theories, and memorization is a huge element for the win.
All these patterns and openings are now calculated by computers. Of course, there are trillions of possible positions which may happen over the board, but for grandmasters it is very possible to memorize what to do until the 10th, 15th, or sometimes 20th move of the game if they study that particular position deep enough. And Fischer hated that!
In order to keep talent and creativity as the major factors of the game, Fischer invented a new variation of chess in 1992. It was a variant with simple rules and 960 randomized positions.
Rules and 960 Positions
Being easy to learn is very critical for a game. As players, we want to enjoy it and we want to enjoy it now! Complicated rules and setups are buzzkills.
Chess960 was not the first new chess variation invented and offered by chess masters. But most of the other variants were very complicated and intimidating to learn and play.
But Chess960 is very similar to traditional chess. The rules are simple, it is innovative enough, and it is fun.
The rules are defined by the FIDE in ‘Laws of Chess’.
“White pawns are placed on the second rank as in regular chess. All remaining white pieces are placed randomly on the first rank, but with the following restrictions:
a. the king is placed somewhere between the two rooks
b. the bishops are placed on opposite-colored squares
c. the black pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to the white pieces.
The starting position can be generated before the game either by a computer program or using dice, coin, cards, etc.”
But if you wonder, “what is the deal with the 960?”, there are 960 different positions that you can start with. Every position has a different number, and players only know which position they will start with just moments before the game.
This makes preparation almost impossible and leaves the players alone with their pure calculation skills and instincts.
Where Can It be Played?
Of course, the best option is playing over the board. But if you don’t have anyone to play against over the board, you can, using the miraculous possibilities of the internet, play it on Chess.com or lichess.org.
On Chess.com, all you need to do is go to the Play Online tab and choose the 960 variation (You need to click Custom and change the standard variation to 960).
On lichess.org, you need to click Create a Game and choose Chess960 as the variation. Whenever a player accepts the challenge you created, the game is on!
Chess960 and the Future
Chess960 has been played between top-level chess players now. Random variation may become the future of the game. Especially when you consider that computers are getting better and better, one day, the code can be broken and chess can be a real “Lousy Game”.
But, as an amateur player and fan, I don’t see chess becoming lousy soon. And current Chess960 World Champion Hikaru Nakamura agrees.
Once he explained his opinion on what Bobby Fischer said about the theory.
“I understand his point on theory but it definitely has not killed the game. If anything, I think it enhanced it. You can almost play any opening nowadays. On some level, there were many openings that were not playable. With computers, we figured out some openings are actually playable.”
We will see what the future holds, but so far traditional chess has remained popular. But chess variants, like Chess960, aren’t going anywhere either.
