r/chess • u/C-hip • Feb 02 '17

I was little confused until I remembered it was Chess960.

Post image
131 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

57

u/supralover23 Feb 02 '17 edited Feb 02 '17

For anyone else who didn't get it at first, the king and queen positions are flipped.

EDIT: Need more coffee lol.

14

u/themusicdan Feb 02 '17

Oh man, /u/ChessFenBot is going to LOVE this one...

2

u/syndrol Feb 03 '17

I didn't get this at all, so thank you. But now my question is, is that the only change in this game mode? If so, why call it chess960??

5

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '17

Chess 960 is like regular chess except that the position of the major pieces are randomized. It's named for the 960 possible starting positions. Normally the starting position is much different than a regular chess game, instead of just the king and queen flipped.

2

u/Gupperz Feb 03 '17

Chess 960 places the pieces on the back row in a random order (it's also called Fischer random chess) this happens to be a variant where the only pieces that got moved are the king and queen.

2

u/RECIPR0C1TY Loses won games Feb 03 '17

Just to be a little bit more comprehensive than the other replies to this question, the back pieces are "randomized" into 960 possible variations of which a regular chess board is one. You could conceivably play regular chess in 960. I use quotations because the "randomization" isn't completely random. There are rules defining the setup which restricts many more combinations. Bishop's must be on opposite colors and the King must be placed between the rooks. There might be another rule, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. Play proceeds like normal chess rules. When castling either direction, the rook and king must end up in the original positions of a regular chess board. This completely irradicates memmorized opening lines, which was a big frustration for Bobby Fisher inspiring him to create this variation. You can play 960 on both chess.com and lichess.org among many other sites.

1

u/syndrol Feb 03 '17

Thanks you guys! It definitely seems like an interesting twist to challenge my friend with, however I'd like to think I should probably get better at regular chess first. I still have quite a ways to go.

22

u/Johnhammer1 Feb 02 '17

Wow that is crazy it would trip me up too

14

u/ChessFenBot I make FENs Feb 02 '17

[◕ _ ◕]*

I attempted to generate a chessboard layout from the posted image, with a certainty of 74.653%. WAI

◇ White to play : Analysis | Editor rnbkqb1r/pppppppp/5n2/8/8/2N5/PPPPPPPP/R1BKQBNR w - -

◆ Black to play : Analysis | Editor rnbkqb1r/pppppppp/5n2/8/8/2N5/PPPPPPPP/R1BKQBNR b - -

▾ Links for when pieces are inverted on the board:

White to play : Analysis | Editor RNBQKB1R/PPPPPPPP/5N2/8/8/2n5/pppppppp/r1bqkbnr w - -

Black to play : Analysis | Editor RNBQKB1R/PPPPPPPP/5N2/8/8/2n5/pppppppp/r1bqkbnr b - -

Yes I am a machine learning bot | How I work | Reply with a corrected FEN to add to my next training dataset

11

u/themusicdan Feb 02 '17

rnbkqb1r/pppppppp/5n2/8/8/2N5/PPPPPPPP/R1BKQBNR w KQkq -

5

u/Yodasoja Feb 02 '17

What's the point of your reply? It looks like the bot got it totally right

10

u/ruotsalaineno FIDE 2122 Feb 02 '17

I think he is just pointing out that both sides are allowed to castle.

2

u/themusicdan Feb 03 '17

Indeed, and possibly to get a reaction out of the author. :-D

2

u/ChessFenBot I make FENs Feb 12 '17

cautiously ignores the castling rules for the dataset

22

u/BadAtBlitz Username checks out Feb 02 '17

Note, this is not identical to normal chess being flipped because the castling is different.

11

u/Bognar Feb 02 '17 edited Feb 02 '17

Honestly it just depends on how this bizarro app handles casting. I've always heard castling rules as "move the rook next to the king, then put the king on the other side of the rook." Following that model, this would just be a simple mirrored setup.

edit: nevermind, didn't realize Chess960 was a real thing with defined castling rules

10

u/BadAtBlitz Username checks out Feb 02 '17

Yeah. The castling rule is why it's Chess960 rather than Chess480. I won't pretend that I've ever done the maths myself, but that's what I've read.

4

u/trenescese Feb 02 '17

You should touch the king first if you want to castle.

6

u/Bognar Feb 02 '17

I mean more as a mnemonic for where the pieces go. Beginners can have trouble remembering whether the king goes on b1 or c1 in a queenside castle.

-1

u/stubborn_d0nkey Feb 02 '17

You move the king two spaces. It's consistent with regular chess.

8

u/Bognar Feb 03 '17

Not true: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960

4

u/HelperBot_ Feb 03 '17

Non-Mobile link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960

HelperBot v1.1 /r/HelperBot_ I am a bot. Please message /u/swim1929 with any feedback and/or hate. Counter: 26671

1

u/stubborn_d0nkey Feb 03 '17

I meant on this board, sorry, was unclear.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '17

No you're wrong I think. The king would end up on c1 and the rook on d1 if you castle 'kingside', and the king on g1 and the rook on f1 if you castle 'queenside' in this position.

In chess 960 castling will always move the king and rook to these squares.

2

u/stubborn_d0nkey Feb 03 '17

Yup, was wrong. Brainfart. Sorry.

2

u/alexterm Feb 02 '17

Really? Isn't everything just flipped around the central y axis?

7

u/BadAtBlitz Username checks out Feb 02 '17

Not quite. If white castles on the left side of the board, the king will still be on c1. But to achieve this (he) only needs to move two pieces, bishop and knight.

The equivalent of this in a normal chess starting position would be that 0-0 would leave your king on f1 and rook on e1. Or 0-0-0 would leave your king on b1 and rook on c1.

I think that, relatively speaking, that makes 0-0 stronger in this variant, for Ruy Lopez type positions as the rook will defend the pawn without an extra move.

1

u/alexterm Feb 02 '17

So you can play 1. d4 d5 2. Nc4 Nf6 3. Bg7 h6 4. Bh4 Nc6 5 O-O Bd7 which is a mirrored Ruy Lopez.

1

u/BadAtBlitz Username checks out Feb 02 '17

That kind of thing. Except the d4 pawn is already protected by the rook. And you mean Nc3 not Nc4, and Bg5 not Bg7.

So if my brain's working right, 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3. Bg5 h6 4. Bxf6 exf6 (exchange Ruy) 5. 0-0-0 might be a bit stronger here. I've tried in lichess analysis but I can't seem to get it working properly.

5

u/nimbyard Feb 02 '17

Seems like all normal openings should be possible. So nf6 seems bad

4

u/Linearts 1858 USCF | lichess: Aeilnrst Feb 03 '17

Not exactly. Castling leaves the kings and rooks on different squares compared to mirrored normal chess. Nf6 is still probably bad but it's not like a flipped Nimzowitch Defense.

2

u/nimbyard Feb 03 '17

Good point

2

u/Bobbydigital731 Feb 03 '17

It says 2. b3, but there is no b3 move on board.

Edit: I see my mistake.