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Introduction to Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess)
Chess960 is a variant of chess. It was developed by chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, which is why Chess960 is also called Fischer Random Chess. The difference to chess is the starting position of the pieces on the base line: they are randomly distributed at the beginning, with the opponent's pieces being placed in mirror image.
As in chess, the aim is to checkmate the opponent. For the normal rules of chess, please read there:
Rules of chess. Here only the deviations from the normal rules are explained: the starting position and the special features of castling.
The Starting Lineup
The starting lineup for a game is randomly determined, with the following rules applying:
- The white and black stones are exactly mirror images of each other.
- The pawns are, as usual, in the second and seventh row.
- The king stands on a square between the two towers - not necessarily directly next to each other!
- The two bishops are on squares of different colors.
There are 960 different such setups, which is where the name Chess960 comes from. The starting setup is determined on Brettspielnetz using the method by Hans L. Bodlaender, so that all 960 possibilities have equal probability.
A starting line-up can be seen on the right.
The well-known chess position is one of these 960 positions.
Castling in Chess960
Just like in normal chess, each player can castle once per game. The king and one of the two rooks are moved simultaneously in one move. Since the starting position is different in Chess960, the rules for castling have to be redefined:
After castling, the positions of the king and the moved rook are the same as in normal chess. The king is in the so-called...
- ... c-castling (equivalent to the long castling O-O-O) on the c-square and the castling rook on the d-square.
- ... g-castling (corresponds to the short castling O-O) on the g-square and the castling rook on the f-square.
See the pictures below:
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| Position of the king and rook before castling. |
Black has performed a c-castling (O-O-O) and
White has performed a g-castling(O-O). |
There are 3 conditions for castling. The first two are like in regular chess. The third is a generalization of the standard chess rule:
- Not yet moved: Neither the king nor the castling rook may have been moved once in the game.
- King not attacked: The king may not be in check before or after castling and may not cross a threatened square.
- Not blocked: The squares from the starting position to the end position (both inclusive) must be free of other pieces. The only exception is the rook itself involved in castling, which can be skipped by the king, and for the rook, the king (see picture above).
It can happen that only the king or only the rook is moved during castling, or that both pieces move in the same direction.
If castling is possible, two buttons labeled "C-CASTLING" or "G-CASTLING" appear above the chessboard. If you then want to castling on Brettspielnetz, you have to press the corresponding button.
The notation of Chess960
To use the PGN notation (only for VIPs and above) there are a number of extra tags:
- Variation: This says "Chess 960" to indicate that it is a variation.
- Setup: This has 1 to indicate that it is a special starting setup.
- FEN: On this tag the starting grid is noted according to the
FEN (Forsyth-Edwards notation).
Chess960 game tips
Due to the different starting positions, the tactics in Chess960 are of course a little different than usual.
A few game tips from the Chess960 article on Wikipedia:
- Protect your king!
- Control the central fields!
- Develop your characters as quickly as possible, starting with the lowest value ones!
- Some opening positions have unprotected pawns that should be protected.
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Rules chess960 ( 
The starting lineup for a game is randomly determined, with the following rules applying:
