'Everyone I Know Plays Chess960'

After an 18-month absence from chess960 blogging, I'm going to return to the subject with a couple of posts every month. While developing a new list of topics to tackle, I came across some recent remarks from GM Peter Svidler that nicely summarize the current situation (see Svidler on Carlsen - Karjakin, Computers & More, chess24.com):-

Q: People have long talked about the computer death of chess, about everything having been analysed. One of the cures for that is so-called Fischer chess, or chess960, where the starting position is determined by a drawing of lots. Incidentally, you’re a three-time World Champion in that format.

A: Four-time. Unfortunately when Hans-Walter Schmitt stepped down from organisational activity as a promoter of that game, chess960 went into decline. He organised tournaments in Frankfurt am Main and believed it was an important format which would help chess remain vibrant and young, but at some point his main sponsors left and the tournaments disappeared, and now there’s almost nowhere to play. It’s a great pity, because everyone I know plays chess960 with great pleasure.

Q: I’ve heard it said that leading players regret the huge amount of opening work that would prove useless in chess960.

A: No, that’s not the issue. If suddenly there was no other chess then that work would have been in vain, but there’s never been any serious talk about replacing classical chess with chess960. The main discussion now in terms of the future of chess is what to do with the time control.

Was Svidler three-time World Chess960 Champion or four? In No Place for Chess960 (February 2011), I counted three times, but I'm not going to quibble with the genial GM.

So it wasn't Adieu! (June 2015) after all...