Four Reasons why I prefer Chess960

This article explains why chess960 might be a good alternative to regular chess for many players. Before diving into the reasons in favor of chess960, let's first what that chess variant is and how it differs from regular chess.

What is Chess960?

The rules of chess960 are essentially the same as for regular chess. In particular, all pieces move the same way and the rules for checkmate and stalemate also apply to chess960. The main difference is that the pieces are put on a random position at the beginning of the game. However, random does not mean that any square on the board is possible. As in regular chess, the pawns of white and black start on the second and seventh rank and the remaining pieces are positioned on the respective backrank. The position of the pieces on the backranks is largely random with only one restriction: The king has to be positioned between the two rooks in order to enable the king and the respective rook to switch position when castling. After catling short ot long, the king and the respective rook are on the same position as in regular chess. The number of possible positions under which the pieces can be arranged on the backrank is 960, which is why this chess variant is widely known as "Chess960". Since this chess variant was invented by the former world champion Bobby Fischer, it also sometimes refered to as "Fischer random chess". The image below shows an example of a chess960 starting position. The arrangement of the white pieces is always the same as that of the black pieces in order to ensure a balanced starting position.

My reasons for chess960

Reason #1: More room for creativity

Since regular chess starts always from the same position, we find ourselves in very similar positions from game to game, even after being many moves into the game. This means that the players can apply pre-arranged strategies, since they have played a particular type of position for many times. For some players, this can become tedious over time, as there is little room for the creativity of coming up with new ideas or strategies. In Chess960 on the other hand, it is almost guaranteed that the poisions arising from the opening will be unique in each game, thus giving the players more oppurtunities to think about the position more deeply and unfold new ideas.

Reason #2: No need to memorize opening theory

In regular chess, we often need to memorize openings in order to obtain a decent starting position and to not fall into early traps prepared by the oponent. The higher the chess level becomes, the more theory becomes necessary to keep up with the knowledge of your opponents. In some games of top-grandmasters, the length of the memorized variants even reaches the endgame. Some players try to evade these theory lines by playing a less known opening, which, however, might be objectively worse than the main line. The beauty of chess960 is that there is no need to memorize long opening lines and still get a position in which both players have good chances.

Reason #3: Better understanding of chess principles

In regular chess, there are often particular positional patterns that arise after the opening, such as the stonewall or the London. While playing these positions improves over chess understanding over time, the learning curve is limited if we get the same type of structures over and aver again. By playing chess960, on the other hand, it is almost unevadable to get a unique type of position in each game. Playing a wider range of positions can indeed extend our horizon and help us in improving our general understanding of chess.

Reason #4: Games are interesting from the first move

In many chess games, the first 10 to 15 moves are a theory variant that both players memorized and which ahve been played many times before. Therefore, the opening phase is often not so exciting for the players, especially in high-level games. On the other hand, even the best players of the world can go wrong in the first moves of a chess960 game, since they encounter an unknown position that they never played before. Therefore, surprises can happen from the very first move of a chess960 game and there is no need to wait until the opening finishes before the game gets interesting.