First the Non-routine News

After a short break from blogging, I had two problems to solve with this current post. The first problem was what date to use. According to my current posting schedule, it could have been 15 July 2017, but vacations are vacations and I'll stick with the date that falls after the vacation. The second problem was what to write about. I started by looking at chess960 news over the last month, but two reliable correspondents interrupted that routine procedure by pointing to non-routine news that begs to be repeated.

A comment by HarryO to an old post, Chess960 Simuls @ Mainz (May 2010), started 'Simultaneous blindfold chess960. What an achievement by GM Timur Gareyev!', and linked to Blindfold in Idaho: 'I Feel Sorry if You Missed it' (uschess.org; July 2017).

Timur was up at 5 AM making "power-smoothies" in preparation for the blindfold simul. [...] The simul began with beginners being taught how blindfold chess960 blitz works.

A message from GM Andrey Deviatkin, featured in last month's post, 'The Essence and the Rules of Chess', linked to Aronian: 'I get over losses more easily than wins' (chess24.com), which quoted the Armenian GM...

Q: The computer has now already studied many opening tabiyas in such depth that, perhaps, the moment really has come to switch to Fischer Random Chess?

A: I’ve already on many occasions declared my love for Fischer Random Chess. I hope there will still be tournaments and people will value that variation of the game as I do. In principle, though, we’re currently playing something akin to Fischer Random Chess thanks to Magnus Carlsen, who brought a lot that’s new with his approach. Above all, he managed to minimise the role played by the opening. It’s the Petrosian-Fischer approach -- let’s manoeuvre and see who turns out to be the best. Carlsen has changed modern chess and the majority of players now seek ways to get off the beaten path as soon as possible in the opening, to get a non-standard position. That’s prolonging the era of classical chess.

...then pointed to a tweet by GM Carlsen's sidekick Tarjei Svensen, 'Good news for Aronian' (twitter.com):-

There are serious plans to organize a FischerRandom/Chess960 World Championship in Norway next year!

I'll save the routine chess960 news for my next post.