All chess960 start positions present their own special challenges and this one has two striking features. The first is the RKR bunched in the corner and the second is the Queen in the opposite corner. The minor pieces are placed between them in one of four possible arrangements.
I use the castling options as a guide to early play and decided to keep those options for as long as possible. While castling O-O-O looks to be the most likely choice, the Rook on the c-file has to move before this is possible. Before that happens, castling O-O might also be possible.
The first moves were 1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 Nf6 4.N1d2 Ng6 5.e3 Qf8, reaching the position shown in the top diagram. The two players have chosen different paths to develop the Knights. For my next moves I intended to move the diagonal pieces off the back rank, then castle O-O.
Before I could execute that plan, the position became very tactical. After the moves 6.c4 c5 7.Qf1 a6 8.a4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bd7 10.g4 Bb6, we reached the position in the bottom diagram.
My opponent played 11.Bg3, threatening discovered check, and I replied 11...Qb4, ignoring the threat while attacking the Knight on d2. After the further 12.f5+ Ka7, my castling strategy was in tatters. The next moves were 13.Nb5+ Bxb5 14.axb5 Qxd2 15.fxg6 a5, after which I let my opponent's advanced Pawn settle on h7, which proved to be enough to win the game 30 moves later.
Somewhere in the moves between the two diagrams I made a mistake. Even after looking at the game a second time while preparing this post, I still can't pinpoint it. Sometimes you lose simply because your opponent plays better than you do. It's called being 'outplayed'.
1 comment:
A comment about Chess960 at Chess.com:
Before you read this, realise that once again Chess960 is being brought up as a topic for the wrong reasons. Chess960 is not about solving the draw problem - that is not why Bobby Fischer invented it.
"There have been concerns that such an intervention into the set of rules could change the essence of the game. Apart from the fact that neither Lasker nor Réti nor other proponents considered such a concern well-founded, it could well be argued whether or not Chess960, which has already been accepted by both FIDE and ICCF, constitutes a much more severe intervention into the set of rules. However, questions like this cannot be answered on an objective basis because in the end, they are value-based judgements – for one player, the classic starting position is part of the essence of chess while for the next player, the very same starting position is more of an obstacle standing in his way of playing creative chess."
http://en.chessbase.com/post/correspondence-chess-the-draw-problem
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