tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post6792554017885853787..comments2024-02-20T07:50:13.558+01:00Comments on Chess960 (FRC): Random Position, Random Results?Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-43712949934125896762013-03-31T08:07:29.995+02:002013-03-31T08:07:29.995+02:00In chess960, it seems very likely that Black can f...In chess960, it seems very likely that Black can force a draw from any start setup, if Black plays any of the sufficiently strong variations.<br /><br />But the question being asked in your post of March/30 is:<br /><i>How difficult is it for the <b>*human*</b> playing as Black to stay on a draw-sufficient variation the whole game, <b>*relative*</b> to the traditional SP518?</i><br /><br />In SP518 it seems Black can force a draw with a variety of sufficient moves at many or most move-pairs in the variation tree.<br /><br />But in the sharpest chess960 setup, the draw-sufficient variation tree might have numerous crucial <b>"only one good move"</b> points; which at the human level is a harder tree to stay on.<br /><br />The enormously high draw rate in elite grandmaster chess (approx 60%) is bad, but an ultra-sharp chess960 start setup, if it increases the ratio of WhiteWins / BlackWins, is not a good way to reduce the draw rate.<br /><br />This difference in <b>*difficultly*</b> of finding the draw-forcing variation is what chess players are really referring to when they say things like - "White's position is a little better".<br />Well, the other thing players might mean is - "I am unsure whether White can force a win from here with perfect play".<br /><br />So, in chess960, "Black is OK" only if none of the other 959 setups is so difficult for Black that realistically Black too often will be unable to stay on a draw-forcing variation.<br /><br />In a round-robin chess960 tournament, each pair of players should reuse the same setup in their second game that they used in their first game.<br /><br />I would rather see a Blitz speed chess960 game-pair be used as a final tie-breaker in scenarios where currently an Armageddon (draw-odds) chess game is used. Draw odds is a lot weirder than anything about chess960.<br />I bet that the draw rate in Blitz chess960 would be lower than in Blitz from the traditional SP518.<br /><br />GeneM , 2013/03/30<br />GeneMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17760103001033379456noreply@blogger.com