tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60116905364208084202024-03-18T04:03:03.741+01:00Chess960 (FRC)What's in a name? • Chess960, Chess 960, C960, FRC, Fischer Random Chess, Fischerrandom, Fischerandom, 9LX, Freestyle, Fullchess, Shuffle ChessMark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.comBlogger695125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-3494529838915122722024-02-24T17:14:00.002+01:002024-02-26T11:18:40.176+01:00Freestyle Goats Might ReturnContinuing with last week's post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2024/02/carlsen-wins-first-major-chess960-event.html">Carlsen Wins First Major Chess960 Event of 2024</A>
(February 2024), here's a Youtube stream showing the games from the final day.
<P>
<iframe width="420" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mMkzYEYHjpg?si=GfTRdbyAdkfyjD46" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe><BR>
<B>Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge - Final</B> (3:09:15) • 'Streamed live on Feb 16, 2024'
<P>
For streams from the previous days, see
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/@freestyle_chess/streams">@freestyle_chess/streams</A>
(youtube.com). The 'About' page informs,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The primary focus of the competition is on showcasing the personalities and extraordinary skills of Super Grandmasters, with Magnus Carlsen himself handpicking seven world-class challengers.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Handpicked challengers? Is that why two of Carlsen's most dangerous opponents -- GM Nakamura and GM Wesley So -- weren't playing?
Whatever the reason, in
<A HREF="https://en.chessbase.com/post/jan-henric-buettner-my-dream-is-a-grand-slam-of-freestyle-chess-g-o-a-t-challenges-on-five-continents">Jan Henric Buettner: "My dream is a Grand Slam of Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenges on five continents"</A>
(chessbase.com; 'Press release'), we learn,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It was also revealed that Hikaru Nakamura, the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion, has an "extended invitation," so the American top GM and streamer will likely join the field in 2025. He had to decline for the first event because he wanted to prepare differently for the upcoming Candidates Tournament.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
If this comes to fruition, we can look forward to much top-level chess960. Thanks, Weissenhaus people, for a great show!
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-4662140451495846172024-02-17T17:25:00.010+01:002024-02-19T08:37:34.266+01:00Carlsen Wins First Major Chess960 Event of 2024In last month's only post on this blog,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2024/01/freestyle-goats-challenge.html">Freestyle Goats Challenge</A>
(January 2024), I closed it saying,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The official site is <I>Weissenhaus - Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge</I> (freestyle-chess.com). I know that I'll be coming out of hibernation to spectate.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
I didn't find the opportunity to spectate, so I'll make up for that lapse by documenting the event:
<A HREF="https://www.chess.com/news/view/2024-freestyle-chess-goat-challenge-day-8">Carlsen Beats Caruana To Win Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge</A>
(chess.com; Colin_McGourty; 'Day 8').
For his final article on the same event, the same Chess.com journalist produced the following list.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-ob17.gif" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=200><BR>
2024-02-17:
<A HREF="https://www.chess.com/news/view/9-things-we-learned-2024-freestyle-chess-goat-challenge">Nine Things We Learned - Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024</A>
(chess.com; Colin_McGourty; links to previous articles: 'Day 1-8')
<P>
Every one of those nine points is worth further discussion, but I'm not the right person to discuss them, at least for now. Also worth a mention is
<A HREF="https://en.chessbase.com/tagged?tag=Freestyle%20Chess%20G.O.A.T.%20Challenge">Tag: Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge</A>
(chessbase.com), with links to 14 Chessbase articles by various writers. A few of those articles are of considerable background interest, but they will have to wait for another time.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-60227500239512137322024-01-20T17:57:00.001+01:002024-01-22T08:17:15.137+01:00Freestyle Goats ChallengeI admit it; I just can't stop. In my previous post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/12/sayonara.html">Sayonara?</A>
(December 2023), I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Now I'm going back into hibernation, although I won't rule out an occasional post if I have something to say about a subject.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The hibernation can wait for now, because an upcoming event deserves to be promoted. From two of the top chess news sources:-
<UL>
<LI>
2023-12-01:
<A HREF="https://en.chessbase.com/post/freestyle-super-tournament-in-germany-seven-top-players-challenge-carlsen">Freestyle Super Tournament in Germany - Seven top players challenge Magnus Carlsen</A>
(chessbase.com; Press Release)
•
'From 9 to 16 February 2024, the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort on the Baltic Sea in Germany will be the venue for a super tournament in "Freestyle Chess", also known as Chess960. Seven world-class players, including world champion Ding Liren and Vincent Keymer, will challenge the G.O.A.T (Greatest of all Times), Magnus Carlsen, in a Chess960 tournament with classical time control.'
<BR><BR>
<LI>
2023-12-04:
<A HREF="https://www.chess.com/news/view/carlsen-ding-caruana-in-new-200-000-fischer-random-event">Carlsen, Ding, Caruana In New $200,000 Classical Fischer-Random Event</A>
(chess.com; TarjeiJS)
•
'Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge will take place February 9-16 and marks Carlsen's first battle with his successor, World Champion GM Ding Liren, since the Chinese grandmaster took over the throne.'
</UL>
<P>
Freestyle? It's becoming a rite of passage for a new chess960 sponsor : invent a new C960/FRC name for a new tournament. I'll add it to the names at the top of the blog. The more the merrier!
From the 'Press Release':-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
In addition to Magnus Carlsen (33) and Ding Liren (31), the following six players will compete: Fabiano Caruana (31, USA/Italy, #2 in the world), Levon Aronian (41, USA/Armenia, #4 of all times), Alireza Firouzja (20, France/Iran, #5 in the world), Dommaraju Gukesh (17, India, top world rank #9), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (19, Uzbekistan, world rank #25), and Germany's number one, Vincent Keymer (19, top world rank #18).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Where are GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So? I imagine it's a coincidence that both were threats to Carlsen in high-visibility chess960 matches. But enough nitpicking -- the show must go on!
<P>
The official site is
<A HREF="https://www.freestyle-chess.com/">Weissenhaus - Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge</A>
(freestyle-chess.com).
I know that I'll be coming out of hibernation to spectate.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-12822712366787769822023-12-30T17:46:00.001+01:002023-12-31T11:50:44.835+01:00Sayonara?My chess960 blogging started on my main blog and lasted for about nine months...
<UL>
<LI>
2008-08-19:
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2008/08/shall-we-play-fischerandom-chess.html">Shall We Play Fischerandom Chess?</A>
<LI>
2009-05-16:
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2009/05/chess960-blogging-leaves-home.html">Chess960 Blogging Leaves Home</A>
</UL>
<P>
...It continued uninterrupted on this current blog for a little more than six years, when I decided it was time for a pause...
<UL>
<LI>
2009-05-16:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2009/05/first-post-new-blog.html">First Post, New Blog</A>
<LI>
2015-06-27:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2015/06/whispering-fond-adieu.html">Whispering a Fond Adieu!</A>
</UL>
<P>
...The pause lasted a year and a half...
<UL>
<LI>
2017-01-21:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2017/01/everyone-i-know-plays-chess960.html">'Everyone I Know Plays Chess960'</A>
•
'After an 18-month absence from chess960 blogging, I'm going to return to the subject with a couple of posts every month.'
</UL>
<P>
...Now I'm going back into hibernation, although I won't rule out an occasional post if I have something to say about a subject. Bye for now!Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-17663242684215448102023-12-23T17:16:00.008+01:002023-12-31T11:51:51.911+01:00A Chess Christmas Carol<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<B>Chess of Christmas Past, Present, and Future</B><BR>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-nl23.gif" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=210>
<P>
<B>Chess of Christmas Past:</B>
People read books and study so-called opening 'theory', trying to find new moves to spring on unprepared, unsuspecting opponents.
<P>
<B>Chess of Christmas Present:</B>
People run powerful chess engines and memorize computer analysis, trying to find new moves to spring on unprepared, unsuspecting opponents.
<P>
<B>Chess of Christmas Future:</B>
People play chess960 (or whatever they prefer to call it).
<P ALIGN=CENTER>***
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
Have a Merry Chess960 Christmas! And please drive carefully...<BR>
[Images:
<A HREF="https://aicomicfactory.com/">AI Comic Factory</A>]
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-77625154768596729652023-12-16T17:18:00.002+01:002023-12-20T10:21:49.394+01:00'You Dream of Getting Something Playable'The description of the following video explained,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Levon Aronian talks to Anastasiya Karlovich before the start of the 2023 Sinquefield Cup. This aired during round 4.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
GM Aronian has been seen many times on this blog. Use the search box in the right navigation bar for earlier references.
<P>
<iframe width="420" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JHLJFO7S840?si=T7EML8BAhYWeKO-1" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe><BR>
<B>Aronian: It Has Happened! Neural Networks Have Killed Classical Chess</B> (8:46) • '[Published on] Nov 25, 2023'
<P>
At around 3:50 into the video, the discussion turns to this blog's favorite subject.
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<B>Q:</B>
What is your opinion about all these things which are happening in the
chess world right now, on the top especially. With Ding absent,
with Magnus who doesn't want to play that much in classical events --
what is your opinion about everything that is happening, let's say
with a Candidates tournament...
<BR><BR>
<B>A:</B>
I think the time is slowly coming to a point where it's difficult to
play classical chess because of the openings and the fact that neural
networks became a part of chess and and made studying chess so
much easier. It's very difficult to get a game playing with White.
Therefore I think we're almost reaching the time that I've been
waiting for my whole career when we switch to chess960. I think Magnus
is ready. I think almost everybody is ready for it
<BR><BR>
<B>Q:</B>
Really? This is what you think is happening?
<BR><BR>
<B>A:</B>
Yes, it's not much fun because of the openings. I understand that it might
be difficult information for a majority of amateurs, because for them
there is still a lot of meat on the bone, but for professionals, just
showing that you are a better player than an average Grandmaster, is
already very very difficult. You have to hope for -- as they would say
in tennis -- an unforced error, because if you play your best and your
opponent knows the opening there is just no chance for you to win the
game.
<BR><BR>
<B>Q:</B>
Maybe something like this happened at the Isle of Man where you had
good chances also. Then you played four draws in the last rounds.
Maybe some like this happened there.
<BR><BR>
<B>A:</B>
Yes, generally that's a problem, because the positions that you get
from the opening -- I mean you dream of getting something that is
playable -- there are actually pieces on the board. It's a bit of a
problem. Maybe people will think I'm pessimistic. A lot of my
colleagues will think I'm actually optimistic.
<BR><BR>
<B>Q:</B>
So in 10 years we'll have the Sinquefield Cup with chess960?
<BR><BR>
<B>A:</B>
Oh, I hope. I can't wait.
<BR><BR>
<B>Q:</B>
This is where you see yourself in 10 years?
<BR><BR>
<B>A:</B>
I hope I will be fighting. You know it all depends on such factors as
health but so far I can't complain. I love to fight. I love to learn
from young players and it's just a very interesting thing to do.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
For two previous posts referencing the Sinquefield events, see
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2021/12/chess940-in-chess-life.html">Chess940 in 'Chess Life'</A>
(December 2021), and
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/09/2023-champions-showdown-videos.html">2023 Champions Showdown, Videos</A>
(September 2023).
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-47838336388418598952023-11-25T17:17:00.015+01:002023-11-30T10:42:05.422+01:00Organizing an OTB Chess960 TournamentA couple of months ago, in
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/09/what-about-biel.html">What about Biel?</A>
(September 2023), I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Before I discovered this video, my objective in the search was to learn about best practices for organizing and directing an OTB (i.e. not online) chess960 tournament. The year 2023 saw both a round-robin and a Swiss chess960 event in Biel. What can be learned from them?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
I posted a few more times about Biel, where the most recent was
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/11/live-coverage-from-biel.html">Live Coverage from Biel</A>
(November 2023). I didn't learn much about Biel 'best practices', but I did have the time to create my own list of points to consider.
<P>
Note that I've never participated in an OTB chess960 tournament, so I have no direct experience here. I've discussed the main points with a few people, always informally. If you have something to say about the subject, you can leave a comment at the end of this post. Here's my list of considerations (SP = Start Position):-
<UL>
<LI>Allow SP518 RNBQKBNR?
<LI>Play same position on each board?
<LI>Play two games with each SP?
<LI>Use what time control?
<LI>Use what ratings for seeding / pairings?
<BR><BR>
<LI>Choose SPs how? [A]
<LI>Announce chosen SP how?
<LI>Announce SP how long before game starts? [B]
</UL>
<P>
The first five questions can be decided beforehand. The last three are more operational. The comments in brackets ('[]') have further considerations below.
<P>
<B>[A]</B>:
There are a number of pitfalls to avoid. The first pitfall involves the SP generator on Chessgames.com, which uses nonstandard numbering. I've posted a few times about this:-
<UL>
<LI>
2021-04-24:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2021/04/chessgamescom-start-position-xref.html">Chessgames.com Start Position XREF</A>
<LI>
2021-05-29:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2021/05/chessgamescom-converter-cleanup.html">Chessgames.com Converter Cleanup</A>
</UL>
<P>
The second pitfall is that there are a number of bad algorithms in use. They are bad because they overlook the requirement that all SPs should have an equal possibility of being chosen. See, for example:-
<UL>
<LI>
2017-09-23:
<A HREF="https://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2017/09/start-by-placing-bishops.html">Start by Placing the Bishops!</A>
</UL>
<P>
For some novel selection methods -- not necessarily good -- see:-
<UL>
<LI>
2010-07-17:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2010/07/special-chess960-dice.html">Special Chess960 Dice</A>
<LI>
2011-10-01:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2011/10/chess960-wheel-of-fortune.html">The Chess960 Wheel of Fortune</A>
</UL>
<P>
<B>[B]</B>:
One idea is to distribute a short list of SPs before the event starts, then choose one SP from the list before each round. This allows for some brief home preparation.
The short list can be longer than the number of rounds, e.g. twice the number, to satisfy purists who want to keep home preparation to a minimum.
<P>
While preparing this post, I found an interesting description for the
<A HREF="https://newzealandchess.nz/nz-fischer-random-championship-2023/">NZ Fischer-Random Championship 2023</A>
(newzealandchess.nz; New Zealand Chess News). The announcement ('Format') said,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There will be two six-round Swisses. The A-grade is restricted to players familiar with Fischer-Random (Chess 960) rules; the B-grade is open to less experienced players (the Organisers reserve the right to move a player to an appropriate section).
<BR><BR>
We are using FIDE rapid ratings for seeding, and will apply FIDE rapid chess rules (eg 2nd illegal move loses the game). The time control is 25 minutes for the game with 5 seconds increment per move from move one.
<BR><BR>
Positions will be drawn at random and displayed. Players will be expected to set up the boards themselves, and there will be 10 minutes between the start of the round and the start of the clocks, for players to study the position (without moving any pieces).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
One of the problems in researching 'best practices' is the large number of synonyms for chess960, like 'FRC', etc. Add that to the large choice of relevant keywords and I was never sure if I was overlooking good announcements.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-75367233061738335902023-11-18T17:24:00.001+01:002023-11-20T12:26:22.013+01:00Live Coverage from BielA couple of months ago, in
<A HREF="https://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/09/what-about-biel.html">What about Biel?</A>
(September 2023), I embedded a video and noted,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It turns out that this video is the first of two parts and that there are previous year streams going back to 2020. Before I go any further with this post, I need to determine exactly what I'm looking at.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The video for the full 2023 event encountered a technical glitch, lost some footage, and was restarted in a second part. Following are links for all live streams from 2020 through 2023.
<P>
<B>'Biel Chess Festival 2023: GMT Chess 960'</B>
•
Commentators:
GM Arturs Neiksans and Angelika Valkova
<UL>
<LI>
2023-07-15:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naD8-yDIqlM">Part 1</A>
(embedded in 'What about Biel?')
<LI>
2023-07-15:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8bt2-A9yDE">Part 2</A>
</UL>
<P>
<B>'Biel Chess Festival [2022]: ACCENTUS Chess 960 tournament'</B>
•
GM Arturs Neiksans and Angelika Valkova
<UL>
<LI>
2022-07-11:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BD8mFVU-Y">Full event</A>
</UL>
<P>
<B>'54th International Biel Chess Festival [2021] - Chess960'</B>
•
GM Arturs Neiksans
<UL>
<LI>
2021-07-24:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1evHjAPKz58">Full event</A>
</UL>
<P>
<B>'Biel Chess Festival 2020 - Day 1: Chess960'</B>
•
GM Ian Rogers
<UL>
<LI>
2020-07-18:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9stuiQe_04">Part 1</A>
(annoying echo stops at 04:00)
<LI>
2020-07-18:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EFPRelGB1M">Part 2</A>
<LI>
2020-07-18:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIj9uqIi7BE">Part 3</A>
</UL>
<P>
There is much to be discovered here, but I'll leave that for another time.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-77219962195911771882023-10-28T17:50:00.015+02:002023-11-02T10:58:59.263+01:002022 FWFRCC Hikaru's ClimbThe previous post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/10/2022-fwfrcc-lichess-swiss-group-2.html">2022 FWFRCC Lichess Swiss Group 2</A>
(October 2023), featured IM Eric Rosen, a popular chess streamer, broadcasting his participation in an intermediate stage of last year's 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship', aka FWFRCC. The post quoted IM Rosen saying,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This is a more serious stream than usual. It's a [Chess960] World Championship and this is stage two. [...] To move on beyond this tournament I need to finish top-18.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That post provided enough background to locate online resources that documented the entire FWFRCC event. This current post features GM Hikaru Nakamura, an even more popular streamer, who won the entire event. For more background, see last year's post
<A HREF="https://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/11/2022-fwfrcc-finals-live.html">2022 FWFRCC Finals - Live</A>
(November 2022). The following video covers the end of the last stage of the event.
<P>
<iframe width="420" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yp8ZhBrRn8s?si=ad5jYUkEUMQvh_vc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe><BR>
<B>Dear YouTube, Meet Your New World Champion</B> (44:17) • '[Published on] Oct 31, 2022'
<P>
The video's description said,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Hikaru played Ian Nepomniachtchi in the Fischer Random World Chess Championship in Iceland on October 30, 2022, and WON! Here's his recap of the last five games.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The video was the last in a series by Nakamura that captured, from start to finish, his climb to the C960/FRC title. The winner's Youtube channel (GMHikaru) currently boasts '2.15M subscribers'. I found nine videos relevant to the 2022 FWFRCC on the channel:-
<UL>
<LI>
2022-09-13:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVyYVOeC4y4">Hikaru on Lichess Fischer Random World Champs Qualifier</A>
•
'Hikaru plays in a qualifier on Sept 11, 2022 held on Lichess for the Fischer Random World Championship being held in Iceland in October. This is the first qualifier, the top 15 will play on Sept 18th in a knockout format. This is part 1. Hikaru recorded this off stream.'
<LI>
2022-09-18:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEJETqYFo1Y">Can Hikaru Be World 960 Champion?</A>
•
'This is the 2nd half of the qualifier played on Sept 11, 2022, on lichess.'
<LI>
2022-09-19:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s86vi4cp6gU">Hikaru Finds Young Talent in 960 Quals</A>
•
'Hikaru Beats up two youngsters, FM Andy Woodward and GM Awonder Liang, and recaps it for us in the 960 World Championship Qualifier played on Lichess on September 18, 2022.'
<LI>
2022-09-26:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdjPh0hj3yE">I'm Going to Iceland to Play Bobby Fischer!</A>
•
'Today, Sept 25, 2022, Hikaru played in the Qualifier to the Fischer Random World Championship 2022 in Iceland.'
<LI>
2022-10-26:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7LKH6IS1w">How I Beat Magnus - A Strong Start to 2022 FRWC Day 1</A>
•
'Thanks to everyone for your continued support. The FR World Champs will be broadcast on my Twitch channel every day and I hope to make recaps after each day.'
<LI>
2022-10-27:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlY2XM4gZh8">World Championship Recap Day 2, Fedoseev is a Tough Fish to Catch</A>
•
'Hikaru's recapping Day 2 of the Fischer Random World Chess Championship, two matches vs Vladimir Fedoseev.'
<LI>
2022-10-27:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ugYky3ZGw">Dear Youtube, Magnus is a Beast</A>
•
'Today I played Magnus in two games to qualify to the Semifinals'
<LI>
2022-10-29:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgTi58Vk-xY">Dear YouTube, I'm Playing in a World Championship!</A>
•
'Hikaru played World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the Fischer Random World Chess Championship Semifinals today and here is his recap.'
<LI>
2022-10-31:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8ZhBrRn8s">Dear YouTube, Meet Your New World Champion</A>
•
'Hikaru played Ian Nepomniachtchi...'
[as above]
</UL>
<P>
The video embedded on this post is the last clip of the series. It currently has over 519K views and over 2200 comments. The first comment says,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The man just won the Fischer 960 World Championship. Does he rest or go out for celebratory drinks or dinner -- nope, he goes back to the hotel, gets back to work, and gives his fans/subscribers a recap and analysis. Hikaru, you’re a true gift to the game of chess. Congratulations and thank you!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
You might have a problem with GM Nakamura's brash style -or- you might have a problem with the idea of C960/FRC, but that's your problem. Naka is a legitimate World Champion in a chess discipline of the 21st century.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-3127667394600571312023-10-21T17:26:00.000+02:002023-10-30T12:14:58.417+01:002022 FWFRCC Lichess Swiss Group 2A few months ago, in
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/07/talking-about-chess960.html">Talking About Chess960</A>
(July 2023), I discovered an interesting link:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
No.35; 2023-07-30: [Google] <I>Swiss Rapid Fischer Random Championship</I> (bielchessfestival.ch)
•
The runner-up was popular streamer 'IM Rosen Eric'; possible action: review his resources.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
I reviewed IM Rosen's resources and quickly found the following Youtube video.
<P>
<iframe width="420" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X69tOKDAmlA?si=5T6Xw0GljHQFSIkk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe><BR>
<B>SERIOUS Chess 960</B> (3:04:05) • '[Published on] Nov 1, 2022; Originally streamed on Sept. 10, 2022.'
<P>
The clip has no description, so what are we watching here? At around 10:00 into the clip, we learn,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This is a more serious stream than usual. It's a [Chess960] World Championship and this is stage two. I believe this is a Swiss stage. I played the the Arena stage last week and because I finished top-500 in Arena -- which wasn't too difficult -- I'm in this tournament now. To move on beyond this tournament I need to finish top-18.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
I covered that complicated World Championship tournament last year, where the final post was
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/12/2022-fwfrcc-wrapup.html">2022 FWFRCC Wrapup</A>
(December 2022; 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship').
The stage of the tournament in the video was covered chronologically by an earlier post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/10/2022-fwfrcc-qualifiers.html">2022 FWFRCC Qualifiers</A>
(October 2022).
<P>
The many FWFRCC preliminary events were played in parallel, independently on the two main online chess sites, Chess.com and Lichess.org.
IM Rosen participated on the Lichess side.
My 'Qualifiers' post had a link to
<A HREF="https://lichess.org/blog/YxuyrRAAACEApmdm/midway-through-the-world-fischer-random-championship-qualifiers-on-lichess">Midway Through The World Fischer Random Championship Qualifiers on Lichess</A>
(lichess.org; September 2022), which gave some context:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
With the open and invitational arena stage over, we now move to the first Swiss stages marking the midpoint of the qualifiers on Lichess. At the Swiss stages, eligible players can only take part in the groups they’ve been sorted into. Eligible players and the groups they’ve been sorted into can be >>> found here <<<.
[...]
The top 18 players of each group go through, where they will meet on 11th September (with the same start times), and be met by 10 wildcards. In total, up to 100 players will compete in the second Swiss stage to determine the final 16 who go through to the KO stages.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The 'found here' anchor leads to
<A HREF="https://lichess.org/@/FIDE/blog/fide-world-fischer-random-championship-swiss-stages/sVyUcX2G">FIDE World Fischer Random Championship - Swiss Stages</A>
(lichess.org), where we learn that one 'EricRosen' qualified from the 'FIDE CCC & NACCL World Fischer Random Qualifier' into the
<A HREF="https://lichess.org/swiss/zLMaMlsu">CCC and NACCL: Swiss Group 2</A>. That is the 11-round event presented in the video.
<P>
After that long introduction to set the scene, let's list the games played from the video. The first column shows the video start time, followed by the start position:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
0:00:08 SP422 RNBQNBKR<BR>
0:14:32 SP459 RNNKBQRB<BR>
0:31:05 SP670 RNKRNBBQ<BR>
0:46:13 SP385 BQRBNNKR<BR>
1:01:58 SP060 NBNRQKBR<BR>
1:18:43 SP901 RKBBQRNN<BR>
1:35:35 SP280 NBRKBNRQ<BR>
1:51:03 SP099 BQNRNKRB<BR>
2:07:21 SP803 BRKQNRNB<BR>
2:25:24 SP228 NBBRQKNR<BR>
2:39:43 SP466 BRNNKBRQ
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The page for 'Swiss Group 2' lists 'No.10 IM EricRosen'. His participation ended in the next step of the event,
<A HREF="https://lichess.org/swiss/YKlqUicw">CCC and NACCL: Swiss Phase 2</A>,
where he finished at no.74. Will I find the time to study Rosen's games in more depth?
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-78137724893014222892023-09-30T17:29:00.019+02:002023-11-19T11:13:10.778+01:00What about Biel?The annual chess960 tournaments at Biel (Switzerland) have been running for some years now and I've never given them a good look. In a recent post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/07/talking-about-chess960.html">Talking About Chess960</A>
(July 2023), Biel appeared twice with links to the results:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
'<I>ACCENTUS Chess960 (ACC) - Biel International Chess Festival</I> (bielchessfestival.ch; w/ PGN)'
*and*
'<I>Swiss Rapid Fischer Random Championship</I> (bielchessfestival.ch)
•
The runner-up was popular streamer "IM Rosen Eric"; possible action: review his resources.'
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That first tournament, 2023 ACCENTUS, was streamed live; the coverage starts at 9:10 in the following video:-
<P>
<iframe width="420" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/naD8-yDIqlM?si=JuK7VYjIGMYB5rOu" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe><BR>
<B>Biel Chess Festival 2023: GMT Chess 960</B> (2:59:21) • 'Streamed live on Jul 15, 2023'
<P>
The description doesn't add much except an error:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Biel Chess Festival 2022 [?; sic] live from Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Before I discovered this video, my objective in the search was to learn about best practices for organizing and directing an OTB (i.e. not online) chess960 tournament.
The year 2023 saw both a round-robin and a Swiss chess960 event in Biel. What can be learned from them?
<P>
It turns out that this video is the first of two parts and that there are previous year streams going back to 2020. Before I go any further with this post, I need to determine exactly what I'm looking at.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-29175758163335041312023-09-23T17:31:00.017+02:002023-09-26T11:47:33.384+02:002023 Champions Showdown, VideosIn the previous post,
<A HREF="https://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/09/2023-champions-showdown-st-louis.html">2023 Champions Showdown, St. Louis</A>
(September 2023), I quoted a press release from the Saint Louis Chess Club which started,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
SAINT LOUIS, September 12, 2023 - GM Sam Sevian won the 2023 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX after a brilliant final day [...]
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Here's a video from the club's Youtube channel featuring a chat with the winner not long after he won the event.
<P>
<iframe width="420" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8c4ppKi81Bc?si=QpN9hSyQCVAcNRsh" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe><BR>
<B>9LX Champ Sevian: 960 Helps the Imagination</B> (5:09) • '[Published on] Sep 11, 2023'
<P>
The description said,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Sam Sevian talks to Cristian Chirila after going [+2-0=1] and winning the event on the third day of the 2023 Chess 9LX.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The three days of action were streamed live on the same channel under the title '2023 Champions Showdown | Chess 9LX':-
<UL>
<LI>
2023-09-08:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiH4h4oLK_8">Day 1</A>
<LI>
2023-09-09:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48fbpZYsTsU">Day 2</A>
<LI>
2023-09-10:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hom52SO1G0">Day 3</A>
</UL>
<P>
The description for the first day said,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Live from the World Chess Hall of Fame, the sixth Chess 9LX event is a 10-player Fischer Random chess (Chess960) round robin rapid tournament (with pairings). Today are the first three rounds. Join GMs Yasser Seirawan, Cristian Chirila, and IM Nazi Paikidze for the move-by-move.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
For all of the club's videos for the event, see:-
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVWaFpMwtaGiDwZFpe8dXqr8SoLc5LKy-">2023 Champions Showdown | Chess 9LX</A>
(playlist)
</UL>
<P>
The playlist includes two more videos featuring GM Sevian.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-20381539116030764352023-09-16T17:35:00.001+02:002023-09-17T11:39:37.928+02:002023 Champions Showdown, St. LouisThe top chess960 tournament of the year is undoubtedly the annual event hosted by the St. Louis chess club.
The results for this year were announced on the club's blog in
<A HREF="https://saintlouischessclub.org/blog/grandmaster-sam-sevian-delivers-brilliant-performance-win-2023-champions-showdown-chess-9lx">Grandmaster Sam Sevian Delivers Brilliant Performance to Win 2023 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX</A>
(saintlouischessclub.org). The press release started,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
SAINT LOUIS, September 12, 2023 - GM Sam Sevian won the 2023 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX after a brilliant final day, where he defeated a competitive field including legendary former World Champion Garry Kasparov and World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to take home the $37,500 first place prize.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The crosstable shows that GM Sevian won the event without a loss, a full point ahead of the next group of players.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-ni16.gif" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=190><BR>
<A HREF="https://www.uschesschamps.com/2023-champions-showdown-chess-9lx/overview">2023 Champions Showdown Chess 9LX</A><BR>
(uschesschamps.com)
<P>
I'll have more to say about the event in the next post. For the report on last year's event, see
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/09/2022-champions-showdown-st-louis.html">2022 Champions Showdown, St. Louis</A>
(September 2022).
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-60009733555471782122023-08-26T17:44:00.003+02:002023-08-28T11:49:12.875+02:00Chess018 and the CCRLIn last week's post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/08/chess018-is-thing.html">Chess018 Is a Thing</A>
(August 2023), I suggested an idea for a follow-up post:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
One more idea that could be easily tested is to look at the chess018 start positions (SPs) on CCRL. Which SP is statistically best? Which is worst? What are the most popular first moves for each SP? Sounds like another post is taking form.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
The following chart lists the 18 SPs in the chess018 family. The first three columns are from my own database of SPs. The last three columns are from the CCRL (see the sidebar for a link).
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-nh26.gif" WIDTH=365 HEIGHT=380>
<P>
The column 'Dist' ('Distance') is a metric I whipped up when I first started investigating chess960. It was explained in the following posts:-
<UL>
<LI>
2009-08-15:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2009/08/randomness-in-chess960-start-positions.html">Randomness in Chess960 Start Positions</A>
<LI>
2009-08-22:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-on-concept-of-distance.html">More on the Concept of Distance</A>
</UL>
<P>
Some day I hope to find a use for 'Dist', e.g. a correlation with some other observation. Today is not that day.
<P>
The CCRL numbers for chess018 should be compared to the same numbers across all 960 SPs. At first glance, nothing unusual appears.
Somewhat curious is the one SP where the score for White is less than 50% -- the traditional start position. I imagine it has something to do with the engines not using a book.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-20775047129587947542023-08-19T17:35:00.002+02:002023-08-21T11:40:13.472+02:00Chess018 Is a ThingThis month's <I>Chess Life</I> (August 2023) had a three page article relevant to the world of chess960. Titled
'Chess18 :
Streamers descend on a
giant log cabin to try
their hands at an
interesting variant'
by GM Larry Kaufman, it started,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Recently I had the opportunity
to participate, at least for a bit,
in a fun chess event at the Timber
Moose Lodge in Timber Lakes, Utah,
along with some of the most popular chess streamers
around.
It wasn't a world championship, but it was the first
master-level chess18 tournament, and it was watched by
chess fans around the globe.
<BR><BR>
Chess18 is a subset of chess960, or as it more popularly
known, "Fischer Random" chess. It uses the 18 positions
of chess960 where the Kings and Rooks begin on their
normal squares -- the upshot is that no special castling
rules are needed.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Later in the article, GM Kaufman admitted,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I have long liked the concept of Chess18,
so in 2020 I organized a four-game Chess18
Rapid match between the Komodo
chess engine and 2018 Reykjavik
Open Chess960 champ GM Alex
Lenderman, with Komodo giving
knight odds.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
This isn't the first time that 'chess018' (as I'll call it for the purpose of searching on this blog) has been discussed here. More than ten years ago I posted
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2013/07/bizarre-castling-rules.html">'Bizarre Castling Rules'?</A>
(July 2013), which quoted someone else saying,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This variant, which I have dubbed Chess18, has a randomized opening setup just like its "predecessors." The difference is that the Rooks and the King start on the same squares that they do now so that castling remains exactly the same as it is now -- problem solved!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Ten years on I can say with some authority that the 'bizarre castling rules' add an extra dimension to the opening strategy in a game of chess960. Instead of automatically castling O-O as in the majority of games using the traditional start position (SP518 RNBQKBNR), the players have to consider which of the three castling options is best -- O-O, O-O-O, or neither -- for themselves and for the opponent in the given start position. This consideration affects the choice of development for the other pieces.
<P>
<P>
Before that 'bizarre rules' post, I wrote
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2011/12/not-everyone-likes-chess960.html">Not Everyone Likes Chess960</A>
(December 2011), where I noted,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There is nothing to stop any circle of players -- be they GMs or club players -- from restricting their chess960 activity to a handful of positions. This is, after all, what traditional chess does in restricting its focus to SP518. The rest of the world should not be obliged to follow their narrow choice.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That thought is still a guiding light for me. 'Let a thousand flowers bloom' becomes 'Let 960 flowers bloom'.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>***
<P>
A few other points came to mind while I was writing this post.
One of the obvious, although unspoken, advantages of chess018 is that chess engines don't have to be altered to play it. Of course, in 2023 any engine that doesn't understand chess960 castling rules is a contender for the chess engine graveyard.
<P>
Re 'automatically castling O-O as in the majority of games using SP518', I'm not sure whether I've already posted on this. How do the other 'chess018' positions compare to SP518?
<P>
Re Kaufman's aside -- 'chess960, or as it more popularly known, "Fischer Random" chess' -- I've assumed for a few years now that this was indeed the current trend. Last month, while I was researching material for a post, I searched on both 'chess960' and 'fischer random' plus a keyword/phrase using several different search terms. I had more hits on 'chess960' than on the alternative. This is only anecdotal evidence and should be tested more rigorously. But how?
<P>
Re 'chess018', I'm going to try to stick to 'chessnnn' to name subsets of chess960. The leading zero in '018' is a bit geeky, but so what?
<P>
Re '18 positions of chess960', did the organizers allow SP518? Some people use 'chess959' to describe the full 960 positions less SP518. It's not a bad convention. Some more conventions:
'chess001' for the SP518 crowd (the chances of that catching on are exactly zero);
'chess002' for SP518 and SP534 only (the King and Queen switched), and
'chess000' for people who hate chess.
<P>
One more idea that could be easily tested is to look at the chess018 start positions (SPs) on CCRL. Which SP is statistically best? Which is worst? What are the most popular first moves for each SP? Sounds like another post is taking form.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-21497540761429493172023-07-29T17:26:00.005+02:002023-08-07T10:37:01.644+02:00Talking About Chess960Almost every month, when I'm preparing a post for this blog, I check on recent chess960 news. By 'recent', I mean going back no more than a year, and by 'news', I mean a straightforward Google search on all web pages. Since I have no particularly compelling topic for this post, I'll report on the results of this month's search. Many of the results referred to last year's World Championship (FWFRCC), which I will skip, instead referring visitors to my post
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/12/2022-fwfrcc-wrapup.html">2022 FWFRCC Wrapup</A>
(December 2022).
<P>
The No.01 and No.02 results for 'chess960' were for the Wikipedia and Chessable pages on chess960/FRC. The No.03 result was for:-
<UL>
<LI>
2022-08-29:
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7NzMuFT_a0">Chess960: Fischer Random Chess Explained | Magnus Carlsen and Lex Fridman</A>
(youtube.com; Lex Clips)
</UL>
<P>
In fact, that clip was the lead video in what looks like a blatant promotion for Google's Youtube service. I captured the entire entry in the following screen shot.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-ng29.gif" WIDTH=380 HEIGHT=400>
<P>
No.04 and No.05 were for Digital Game Technology (DGT) and Chess.com. The following entries show other resources that I found interesting. Pages explaining the basics of chess960, for example, are excluded.
<UL>
<LI>
<B>No.08</B><BR>
2023-02-27 [Google's date]:
<A HREF="https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/11der5f/why_is_chess960_named_as_such_when_it_was/">Why is Chess960 named as such when it was invented by Bobby Fischer and he called it Fischer Random?</A>
(reddit.com)
•
For one good reason, see
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2011/12/can-i-use-this-name-fischer-chess.html">'Can I use this name "Fischer Chess"?'</A>
(December 2011).
<LI>
<B>No.10</B><BR>
Google Images; same comment as for No.03 Google's Youtube
<LI>
<B>No.11</B><BR>
2023-02-23 [Google]:
<A HREF="http://rcc.fide.com/guidelinesii/">Guidelines II. Chess960 Rules</A>
(fide.com)
•
Needs some sort of rule to ensure that start positions are selected fairly. Some of the algorithms in common use are faulty.
<LI>
<B>No.12</B><BR>
2023-06-26 [Google]:
<A HREF="chessforallages.blogspot.com/">Chess960 (FRC)</A>
•
'Yay!' for the home team...
</UL>
<P>
I used to classify chess960 tournaments as 'rare birds', because there were so few of them. See, for example,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2019/01/first-post-new-year.html">First Post, New Year</A>
(January 2019), where I wondered,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Should I retire the 'rare birds' series, last seen in <I>(Not so?) Rare Birds, Summer 2017</I> (July 2017)? No, I'm a patient person, so I'll give it more time. I haven't seen any relevant announcements and all of the events mentioned above could have been one-offs.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That was indeed the last post in the series, until this current post. Now there are enough chess960 tournaments that there is no danger of imminent extinction. The next entry is one of several local tournaments that I could have flagged.
<UL>
<LI>
<B>No.13</B><BR>
2023-03-14 [Google]:
<A HREF="https://new.uschess.org/connecticut-fischer-randomchess960-championship-postponed">Connecticut Fischer Random/Chess960 Championship - POSTPONED</A>
(uschess.org; w/ PDF)
<LI>
<B>No.14</B><BR>
2022-08-27:
<A HREF="https://lichess.org/@/rdubwiley/blog/using-lichesss-public-data-to-find-the-best-chess-960-position/GCpB9WLH">Using Lichess's Public Data To Find The Best Chess 960 Position</A>
(lichess.org/@/rdubwiley)
<LI>
<B>No.17</B><BR>
2023-07-22:
<A HREF="https://www.iccf.com/message?message=1629">11th Chess 960 World Cup - Semifinals</A>
(iccf.com)
<LI>
<B>No.20</B><BR>
2023-06-30:
<A HREF="https://twitter.com/ChessbaseIndia/status/1674699182521581568">Big revelation in the reigning World Champion Ding Liren's latest @NewInChess Magazine interview!</A>
(twitter.com)
<LI>
<B>No.27</B><BR>
2023-01-26:
<A HREF="https://abelin.net/2023/01/26/fischer-random-chess-chess960-and-chicken-games/">The Case for Fischer Random Chess (Chess960) and Chicken Games</A>
(abelin.net)
<LI>
<B>No.29</B><BR>
2022-11-01:
<A HREF="https://www.popsci.com/technology/chess-960-fisher-random/">A simple rule variation could move chess out of a stalemate</A>
(popsci.com)
•
'Chess960 is meant to keep the game's creativity -- and curb computers' edge.'
<LI>
<B>No.31</B><BR>
2023-07-15 [Google]:
<A HREF="https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Closed-Tournament/ACCENTUS-Chess960-2023.html">ACCENTUS Chess960 (ACC) - Biel International Chess Festival</A>
(bielchessfestival.ch; w/ PGN)
<LI>
<B>No.42</B><BR>
2023-02-10:
<A HREF="https://twitter.com/lichess/status/1624000444149248008">In case you are exploring the #Chess960 sea...</A>
(twitter.com)
<LI>
<B>No.53</B><BR>
2023-03-28:
<A HREF="https://mathematiciowned.wordpress.com/2023/03/28/classical-chess960-statistics-in-2019-wfrcc-magnus-hikaru-are-lowest-nepo-top-2/">Classical Chess960 statistics in 2019 WFRCC: Magnus & Hikaru are lowest? Nepo top 2!</A>
(mathematiciowned.wordpress.com)
•
Home page:
<A HREF="https://mathematiciowned.wordpress.com/">Mathematiciowned | Blog of J Bruce Feynman Niccolo Pedrosa Bentulan</A>
</UL>
<P>
I stopped the exercise at no.60.
After 'chess960', I did the same search on 'chess fischer random'. No.01 and No.02 were for Wikipedia and Youtube videos. No.03 and No.04 were both for Chess.com, while No.05 was for Chessable.
Following are a few more, (mostly) not repeating what I discussed above.
<UL>
<LI>
<B>No.28</B><BR>
2022-10-25 [Google]:
<A HREF="https://www.forbes.com/betting/chess/fischer-random-chess-championship-magnus-carlsen-favorite/">???</A>
(forbes.com)
•
This returned a blank page. The Google cache returned
<A HREF="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0gMm2lFFPAEJ:https://www.forbes.com/betting/chess/fischer-random-chess-championship-magnus-carlsen-favorite/&cd=37&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=be&client=firefox-b-d">Fischer Random Chess Championship: Magnus Carlsen An Even-Money Favorite To Win Title</A>
<LI>
<B>No.33</B><BR>
2022-10-30: [Google]
<A HREF="https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/yh22ra/why_isnt_magnus_carlsen_as_dominant_in_fischer/">Why isn't Magnus Carlsen as dominant in Fischer Random as in standard chess?</A>
(reddit.com)
<LI>
<B>No.35</B><BR>
2023-07-30: [Google]
<A HREF="https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Swiss-Championships/Swiss-Rapid-Fischer-Random-Championship-2023.html">Swiss Rapid Fischer Random Championship</A>
(bielchessfestival.ch)
•
The runner-up was popular streamer 'IM Rosen Eric'; possible action: review his resources.
<LI>
<B>No.49</B><BR>
2023-06-26 [Google]:
<A HREF="chessforallages.blogspot.com/">Chess960 (FRC)</A>
•
The home team again!
<LI>
<B>No.54</B><BR>
2023-04-07:
<A HREF="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-bobby-fischers-greatest-legacy-a-new-version-of-chess/">Bobby Fischer’s greatest legacy: a new version of chess</A>
(theglobeandmail.com)
<LI>
<B>No.57</B><BR>
2023-02-01:
<A HREF="https://www.splicetoday.com/writing/bobby-fischer-s-greatest-chess-move">Bobby Fischer’s Greatest Chess Move</A>
(splicetoday.com)
<LI>
<B>No.59</B><BR>
2022-10-05:
<A HREF="https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2022/10/05/478821/random-chess-is-future-of-chess-and-philippine-born-wesley-so-is-in-its-midst/">Random chess is future of chess and Philippine-born Wesley So is in its midst</A>
(bworldonline.com)
</UL>
<P>
I again stopped the exercise at no.60. All in all, there are some good leads for future posts.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-30471237675467941462023-07-22T17:33:00.003+02:002023-08-06T10:21:13.378+02:00TCEC FRDA year ago on this blog I had a pair of related posts...
<UL>
<LI>
2022-07-22:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/07/tcec-c960-frc5.html">TCEC C960 FRC5</A>
<LI>
2022-08-27:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/08/tcec-dfrc1.html">TCEC DFRC1</A>
</UL>
<P>
...where 'FRC' stands for 'Fischer Random Chess'. Last month on my main blog I had a pair of follow-up posts...
<UL>
<LI>
2023-06-12:
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2023/06/tcec-frc6-ccc20-rapid-stockfish-wins.html">TCEC FRC6, CCC20 Rapid; Stockfish Wins Both</A>
<LI>
2023-06-26:
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2023/06/stockfish-wins-tcec-dfrc2-ccc20-bullet.html">Stockfish Wins TCEC DFRC2; CCC20 Bullet Underway</A>
</UL>
<P>
...'FRC' is, of course, another name for chess960, where the start positions for the two players are mirrored. 'DFRC' is 'Double FRC', where the two players have different start positions.
<P>
In that post 'Stockfish Wins TCEC DFRC2', I noted that future TCEC FRC/DFRC events will use a format they call 'FRD', meaning 'Fischer Random Double'. For an explanation of FRD, see that post. Don't be surprised if this current post is the last mention of FRD on this blog.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-27641114298231352902023-06-24T17:43:00.005+02:002023-08-01T08:45:06.439+02:00Chess960 in the CloudIn a recent post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/05/when-chess960-reduces-to-chess.html">When Chess960 Reduces to Chess</A>
(May 2023), I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The point where castling is no longer an option is exactly where chess960 starts to look and feel like chess starting from the traditional position (SP518 RNBQKBNR). This is the point where a chess service like Chessify becomes fully viable.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
A few weeks before writing that post, I had the opportunity to use Chessify on live chess960 positions. I was traveling for two weeks without any of the software tools I normally use for correspondence chess960. Before leaving home, I loaded six games into Chessify by using their 'Import' function to enter the current FEN position for each of the games. Most of the games had already reached the point where castling was no longer an option, but there were a couple of exceptions. A week into my trip I finally had some time to look at the games.
<P>
In the diagram's top position White has lost the castling privilege, while Black can still castle to both sides. I was playing Black. Stockfish NNUE on Chessify told me that <B>14...g5</B> was by far the best move, leading to a slight advantage for White. I vaguely remembered from my previous analysis that Black had an advantage in the position and decided that it must have something to do with castling. Since ...O-O-O isn't happening any time soon, the correct line must involve ...O-O. The move <B>14...O-O</B> is a blunder because of 15.Nd7, which suggests <B>14...Nb6</B> to protect d7. Using Stockfish to continue the analysis and manipulating the FEN to simulate ...O-O, I decided that <B>14...Nb6</B> must be the right move and played it.
<P>
When I returned home, I looked at my previous analysis and discovered that <B>14...g5</B> was indeed the right move, leading to a significant advantage for Black. With <B>14...Nb6</B>, I had spoiled my position and gone from a probable win to a struggle for a draw.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-nf24.gif" WIDTH=270 HEIGHT=590>
<P>
In the bottom position White has just castled, while Black can still castle ...O-O-O. I was again playing Black. Still using Stockfish NNUE, I decided that <B>15...O-O-O</B> was premature and played <B>15...f6</B> instead. Back home I was happy with this move and after <B>16.f4</B>, continued <B>16...O-O-O</B>.
<P>
A few moves later I started to see weirdness from Chessify's Stockfish. I always calculate multiple variations (MPV in chess jargon) and reached a position where around depth 25, a key move disappeared from White's candidate moves and another move appeared twice. With the help of Chessify support (top notch in my opinion) I discovered that the FEN for the position was wrong. It indicated that both White and Black could still castle to the side where they had already castled. I corrected the FEN and the Stockfish analysis appeared normal. I decided that there was a bug in Stockfish triggered by faulty FEN.
<P>
In my four other games nothing unusual happened. While traveling I made a move or two in each game and when I returned home confirmed that my play was correct. My conclusions from this exercise? 1) Playing using only cloud tools is feasible; and 2) Playing chess960 with an engine that doesn't understand chess960 castling is possible, but risky. Always double check the chess960 FEN...
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-13599366346085205292023-06-17T17:41:00.006+02:002023-06-25T10:30:53.700+02:00Two PGN Challenges MetAt the end of my previous post,
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/05/two-pgn-challenges.html">Two PGN Challenges</A>
(May 2023), I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Here are two challenges for a future post: 1) Locate the PGN for both events, and 2) Locate a PGN viewer that understands chess960.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Not long after writing the post, I received an anonymous comment pointing to a number of resources on Lichess; see that post for details. I also discovered that the PGN for the two events is available from TWIC:-
<UL>
<LI>
2022-07-22:
<A HREF="https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/55th-biel-chess-festival-2022">55th Biel Chess Festival 2022</A>
(theweekinchess.com)
<LI>
2022-09-14:
<A HREF="https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/champions-showdown-9lx-2022">Champions Showdown 9LX 2022</A>
(ditto)
<LI>
2022-10-25:
<A HREF="https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/fide-world-fischer-random-chess-championship-2022">FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2022</A>
(ditto)
</UL>
<P>
I added the first of the three links to the list because I found it using a search on 'chess960'. The other two links appeared on searches for '9LX' and 'random' (i.e. FRC).
<P>
The Lichess comment described a method for embedding games from Lichess. Here's a game from the 2022 FWFRCC.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<iframe width=400 height=248 src="https://lichess.org/study/embed/Eij7M6Cb/8PWqkxfX" frameborder=0></iframe>
<P>
After I post this, I'll check if the Lichess functionality has survived the Blogger/Blogspot environment.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>***
<P>
<B>Later:</B>
Re 'I'll check if the Lichess functionality has survived the Blogger/Blogspot environment', the functionality to scroll through the game is there, but the moves have disappeared and there is a useless scrollbar on the right. The embed provided by Lichess had dimensions 600x371. Since I use width=400 for images, I resized to 400x248 to get the results shown above.
<P>
Resizing to 400x300 eliminates the scrollbar, but doesn't make the moves appear. I tried width=420, which is close to the maximum for my blog template, but the moves still don't appear. The following uses 400x300, which is the best I can do for now. Note the three vertical dots between the left and right arrows. They open a menu for additional functions including viewing the game on Lichess.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<iframe width=400 height=300 src="https://lichess.org/study/embed/Eij7M6Cb/8PWqkxfX" frameborder=0></iframe>
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-18302132249850231892023-05-27T17:16:00.011+02:002023-06-19T05:56:35.159+02:00Two PGN ChallengesA few days ago I was working on a post for my main blog,
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2023/05/2023-cja-awards-announcement.html">2023 CJA Awards Announcement</A>
(May 2023; Chess Journalists of America), and took the time to catch up on
<A HREF="https://chessjournalism.org/the-chess-journalist/">The Chess Journalist Magazine</A>
(chessjournalism.org). The issue for October 2022 carried a couple of small articles by its editor, both shown in the following composite image.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-ne27.gif" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=240><BR>
<B>By Mark Capron</B><BR>
<B>Left:</B> 'Caruana Wins Chess 960 in St. Louis'<BR>
<B>Right:</B> 'Nakamura Wins World 960 Championship!!'
<P>
Since I had no idea that anyone associated with the CJA leadership had any interest in chess960, this caught me by surprise. In his introduction to the St.Louis article, editor Capron explained,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Chess 960 caught my attention
a few years ago when I was able to follow along one of
the tournaments held in St. Louis. Since that time I have had
visions of directing an event, but COVID-19 has pushed back my
plans. Maybe I will get one set up in 2023.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That is all very good news indeed and I could end this post here, but the two small articles got me thinking about chess960 reporting in general.
Both articles use the same structure:
an introduction,
a selected game with a diagram, and
the final result of the event.
[NB: The eight top finishers of the World Championship (aka '2022 FWFRCC', as used below) have been cropped out of my image. The last line says, 'The final standings were:' ...]
<P>
Both diagrams have been used to identify the game's start position. This could have also been done with the relevant portion of the FEN string -- RBBNKNRQ and BRKRQNNB, respectively -- leaving the diagram to convey a more interesting position from the game. Of course, we have more powerful tools online ... or do we?
<P>
In the nearly 15 years that I've been blogging about chess960, I can't remember ever using a chess960 PGN viewer to present a game online. There were no such tools when I started and I haven't been paying sufficient attention to know if any have been developed since then.
<P>
Even that assumes the PGN is available for download in digital format. I wrote blog posts on the two events mentioned in the CJA journal...
<UL>
<LI>
2022-09-24:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/09/2022-champions-showdown-st-louis.html">2022 Champions Showdown, St. Louis</A>
<LI>
2022-12-17:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/12/2022-fwfrcc-wrapup.html">2022 FWFRCC Wrapup</A>
</UL>
<P>
...and I can't remember downloading PGN for either event. Here are two challenges for a future post:
1) Locate the PGN for both events, and
2) Locate a PGN viewer that understands chess960.
I would hope that both challenges are trivial, but I suspect that I'm dreaming.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-37608516602660216512023-05-20T17:17:00.002+02:002023-05-27T11:22:25.193+02:00When Chess960 Reduces to ChessLet's talk turkey. Once in a while I like to document my recent experience playing chess960 online. Earlier this year I posted
<A HREF="https://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-fascinating-world-of-chess960.html">The Fascinating World of Chess960</A>
(January 2023), where I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Last month's post
was also about switching to a different online service for playing chess960.
[...]
I continued playing on LSS until last year. I was playing chess960 in a couple of multi-stage events, where success in one stage promotes a player to the next stage. I decided to skip the next stages, essentially taking a year off from serious play.
[...]
I switched to Chess.com in May 2022, playing one or (maximum) two games of correspondence chess at a time.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
A month later I wrote a post about a Chess.com service,
<A HREF="https://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/02/chesscom-reviews-chess960-opening.html">Chess.com Reviews a Chess960 Opening</A>
(February 2023). Since then I've stopped playing Chess.com for reasons that I won't discuss in this post. I went back to LSS, partly with the intention of evaluating Chessify for chess960.
<P>
This is the first time I've mentioned Chessify on this chess960 blog, although I've discussed the service several times on my main blog. In
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2023/03/chessify-resources.html">Chessify Resources</A>
(March 2023), I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The main problem with chess960 in a traditional chess environment stems from the castling rules. Since chess960 games tend to become extremely tactical after a few moves have been played, there is nevertheless some value in trying to confirm the tactics with a traditional, non-chess960 engine.
[...]
I'll continue using Chessify to look at chess960 positions.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
There are three phases of a chess960 opening (often overlapping with the early middle game):-
<UL>
<LI>Both sides can castle.
<LI>One side loses the castling privilege.
<LI>The other side loses the castling privilege.
</UL>
<P>
I say 'loses the castling privilege', because it can arise when castling, when the King moves, or when both Rooks move.
The point where castling is no longer an option is exactly where chess960 starts to look and feel like chess starting from the traditional position (SP518 RNBQKBNR).
This is the point where a chess service like Chessify becomes fully viable.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-83575094005712534742023-04-22T17:11:00.005+02:002023-05-23T11:04:50.874+02:00Leela in TCEC FRC EventsMy previous post
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/">Breaking the 4000 Barrier</A>
(April 2023) was about chess960 ratings for engines. I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The fourth [rating] list was based on chess960 games. Here are the top 25 engines from that list.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
I received a question --
<A HREF="https://twitter.com/bemweeks/status/1647560989305630722">@nicbentulan: Is Leela on this list?</A>
(twitter.com) -- against the Twitter anchor for the post. A quick look at the list reveals that Leela is on the most recent list at no.42, rated 3008:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
no.42
•
Lc0 0.29.0 CPU_744706
•
3008
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That rating is nearly 1000 points lower than no.1 'Stockfish 15.1', currently rated 4005. The Lc0 rating looks dubious, given that Leela is currently one of the top three engines in the world. How has it done in TCEC FRC competitions? Following is a list of posts from this blog:-
<UL>
<LI>
2022-07-30:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/07/tcec-c960-frc5.html">TCEC C960 FRC5</A>
•
In the 'Final League', Stockfish and LCZero finished in a tie for 1st and 2nd to qualify for the 'Final Match'.
[...]
In the 'Final Match' Stockfish beat LCZero +17-13=20.'
<LI>
2022-01-22:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2022/01/tcec-c960-frc4.html">TCEC C960 FRC4</A>
•
'Stockfish and LCZero tied for 1st/2nd in the [TCEC] FRC4 'Final League', a point ahead of KomodoDragon. Stockfish beat LCZero +13-9=28 in the Final.'
<LI>
2021-03-27:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2021/03/tcec-c960-frc3.html">TCEC C960 FRC3</A>
•
'In the 'FRC 3' final, KomodoDragon beat Stockfish by a score of +2-1=47.'
<LI>
2020-12-26:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2020/12/tcec-frc2.html">TCEC FRC2</A>
•
'In the FRC2 Final League, LCZero and Stockfish finished first and second to qualify for the 50-game final match. Stockfish beat LCZero +8-0=42.'
[...]
'The first of the three posts above linked to <I>Stockfish, the Strong</I> (July 2014) on this blog, plus two other followup posts based on FRC1. FRC1 was held three and a half years before AlphaZero made waves with its revolutionary AI/NN technology, soon to be followed by Leela Chess Zero (aka LCZero / LC0).'
<LI>
2014-08-02:
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2014/08/tcec-season-6-chess960.html">TCEC Season 6 - Chess960</A>
•
'After posting <I>Stockfish, the Strong</I>, winner of this year's TCEC Season 6 Special Event (chess960), I started looking at the games from the event. I couldn't find a crosstable, so I made one myself, shown below.'
</UL>
<P>
Why is Leela so far down on the CCRL rating list? I'll leave that for the CCRL to answer.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-83705237452462156822023-04-15T17:04:00.001+02:002023-04-16T12:07:33.503+02:00Breaking the 4000 BarrierThe title comes from a recent post on my main blog
<A HREF="https://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2023/04/breaking-3600-barrier.html">Breaking the 3600 Barrier</A>
(April 2023), where the '3600 Barrier' refers to a chess rating level. In that post I wrote,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I see that there are four CCRL rating lists. Shown below are the top five engines from three of the lists.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Why didn't I show all four lists? Because the fourth list was based on chess960 games. Here are the top 25 engines from that list.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-nd15.gif" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=430><BR>
<A HREF="http://ccrl.chessdom.com/ccrl/404FRC/">CCRL 40/2 FRC [C960] - Index</A>
<P>
The most striking feature of the list is that the top engine, Stockfish 15.1, is rated over 4000. This is more than 250 points higher than the top rating shown on the '3600 Barrier' chart. In fact the top four engines on the CCRL FRC list are higher then the top engine on the earlier list.
I couldn't determine why this is.
<P>
[NB: The domain given here (ccrl.chessdom.com) is not the same as the domain in the right sidebar (computerchess.org.uk), although the two sites appear to be identical. The ratings are based on the same database of games used to compute the CCRL 'Opening statistics'.]Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-67079512418109152682023-03-25T17:31:00.001+01:002023-03-27T09:37:24.606+02:00Evolving EvaluationsThe previous post
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2023/03/myth-no6-forced-wins-for-white.html">Myth No.6 - 'Forced Wins for White'</A>
(March 2023) introduced 'the Molas study', a data scientist's effort 'to find if there’s a [chess960] *start position* that's better than the others'.
One of the datasets used in the study was:-
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Stockfish evaluation at depth ~40 for all the starting positions
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
This is also known as the 'Sesse' resource and I gave its URL in the post. The Molas study concluded,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Stockfish evaluations don’t predict actual winning rates for each variation
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
This didn't surprise me. If you consider that each start position (SP) leads to a mega-zillion possible games and that Sesse reduces each SP to a single two-digit number, much more surprising would be to find a meaningful correlation between an SP's W-L-D percentages and its Sesse value.
<P>
I discussed the Sesse numbers once before in
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-stockfish-experiment.html">A Stockfish Experiment</A>
(February 2019). That post mentioned another discussion,
<A HREF="https://www.chess.com/article/view/whats-the-most-unbalanced-chess960-position">What's the Most Unbalanced Chess960 Position?</A>
(chess.com; Mike Klein; March 2018 / February 2020). Fun Master (FM) Mike observed,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Let's now take the most extreme case the other way -- the position where Sesse claims White enjoys the most sizable advantage. The lineup BBNNRKRQ delivers a whopping +0.57 plus for the first move. The advantaged is so marked that some chess960 events may even jettison this arrangement as a possible option (a total of four positions are +0.50 or better for White, but none are as lopsided as this one).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
That position, also known as 'SP080 BBNNRKRQ', has received some notoriety thanks to Sesse, so I decided to investigate further. I downloaded the SP080 file from the CCRL (see link in the right sidebar), loaded it into SCID, and discovered that it contained 554 games. SCID gave me percentages for White's first moves, which I copied into the following chart.
<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<IMG SRC="https://www.mark-weeks.com/c960/blog/c96-nc25.gif" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=490>
<P>
There are 11 first moves for White listed in the top block of the chart. I then expanded the first two of those moves -- 1.g3 (65.7% overall score for White) and 1.Nd3 (59.7%) -- into the second and third blocks of the chart to see how Black has responded to those moves.
<P>
You might be wondering why I said there were 554 games in the file, but the SCID extract counts only 519 games. SCID was designed to handle the traditional start position (SP518 RNBQKBNR) and knows nothing about chess960 castling rules.
SP080 allows 1.O-O on the first move, which SCID rejects. The 35 missing games (554 minus 519) are games that started 1.O-O. When I'm using SCID for a chess960 correspondence game, I have a technique to account for this anomaly, but I won't go into details here.
<P>
Similarly, the charts for 1.g3 and 1.Nd3 show '[end]' as one of the first moves for Black. These are games where Black played 1...O-O on the first move. The corresponding percentage scores are among the worst for Black, showing once again that early castling is a risky strategy.
<P>
If I were playing SP080 in a correspondence game, I would analyze both 1.g3 and 1.Nd3. A promising continuation after 1.g3 is 1...c5, which the score '43.9%' says, 'Favors Black'. Of course, I would have to look at White's second moves in this variation, where one move will appear to be superior to the others. And so on and so on.
<P>
To be useful, the SCID tool needs to be handled intelligently. I recently blundered into a wrong evaluation that I doumented in
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-ccrl-is-unreliable.html">The CCRL Is Unreliable (Not!)</A>
(December 2021). I'm hopeful that some day a tool will appear that rivals SCID functionality *and* that understands chess960 castling. For now, I make do with the software I have.
<P>
For a look at two more SPs where evaluations have shifted with experience, see
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2002/05/sp864-bbqrkrnn.html">SP864 - BBQRKRNN</A>
and
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2002/05/sp868-qbbrkrnn.html">SP868 - QBBRKRNN</A>,
which are both attachments to this blog.
One lesson I've learned from playing chess960 for almost 15 years : nothing is fixed in stone.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6011690536420808420.post-17089297479285611792023-03-18T17:08:00.006+01:002023-03-26T10:37:25.847+02:00Myth No.6 - 'Forced Wins for White'Upon encountering chess960 for the first time, one of the first questions a new player asks is 'Are all 960 positions fair?'. I included a statement of this concern in
<A HREF="http://chess960frc.blogspot.com/2012/05/top-10-myths-about-chess960.html">Top 10 Myths About Chess960</A>
(May 2012), where one bullet said,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Some start positions are forced wins for White
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Remembering that I wrote this more than 10 years ago, at a time when I wasn't absolutely 100% sure that such unfair positions didn't exist, my standard response to the statement was, 'Which positions are forced wins? Please provide a specific example'. I never received a single example. Ten years later I can say with more confidence -- although still not 'absolutely 100% sure' -- that while some positions are difficult for Black to play, none of the 960 positions is lost before a single move is made.
<P>
In January a new study titled,
<A HREF="https://towardsdatascience.com/analyzing-chess960-data-da5c8cdb01de">Analyzing Chess960 Data | Alex Molas | Towards Data Science</A>
(towardsdatascience.com), appeared. Its subtitle announced,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Using more than 14 million chess960 games to find if there’s a variation that's better than the others.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
There is considerable knowledge presented in the study and I don't pretend to understand all of it. I might well need several posts to unravel its subtleties, so I'll start by summarizing its references; in the following discussion, '>>>' means a direct quote from 'Analyzing Chess960 Data'.
<P>
>>>
'The original post was published here...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://www.amolas.dev/blog/chess-960-initial-position/">Discovering the best Chess960 variation</A>
(amolas.dev; Alex Molas; 'Posted Jan 11, 2023; Updated Jan 17, 2023')
</UL>
<P>
[<B>NB:</B> I'll come back to this reference later; see '(A)' below.
First I need to point out that there's an important issue with terminology. When chess players use the term 'variation', they mean a sequence of play arising from a specific position; e.g. 'In this position I had two variations and I had to work out which variation was better for me.'
•
In the Molas study, I'm convinced that the word 'variation' refers to one of the well-defined 960 start positions that are legal for chess960. I read the subtitle of the towardsdatascience.com article as 'to find if there’s a *start position* that’s better than the others' and the title of the amolas.dev post as saying 'Discovering the best chess960 *start position*'. I won't repeat this caveat each time, but it's important and helps to understand the discussion.]
<P>
>>>
'Ryan Wiley wrote this blog post where he analyzes some data from lichess..'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://lichess.org/@/rdubwiley/blog/using-lichesss-public-data-to-find-the-best-chess-960-position/GCpB9WLH">Using Lichess's Public Data To Find The Best Chess 960 Position</A>
(lichess.org/rdubwiley; August 2022)
</UL>
<P>
>>>
'There’s also this repo with the statistics for 4.5 millions games (~4500 games per variation)...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://github.com/welyab/chess960-win-by-position-setup">GitHub - welyab/chess960-win-by-position-setup: Analyzes the results of more than 4.57 million chess games in the chess960 variant</A>
(github.com/welyab)
</UL>
<P>
[<B>NB:</B> There's an issue with the word 'variant' here, but it's not as important as the previous 'NB'. Chess960 purists will know what I'm talking about.]
<P>
>>>
'In this spreadsheet there’s the Stockfish evaluation at depth ~40 for all the starting positions...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1JVT6_ROOlCTtMmazzBe0lhcGv54rB6JCq67QOhaRp6U/edit#gid=0">Fischer Random - 960 startposisjoner - Google Sheets</A>
(docs.google.com; Sesse)
</UL>
<P>
>>>
'There’s also this database with Chess960 games between different computer engines. However, I’m currently only interested in analyzing human games, so I’ll not put a lot of attention to this type of games...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/opening_report_by_white_score.html">CCRL 40/2 FRC</A>
(computerchess.org.uk/ccrl)
</UL>
<P>
>>>
'Lichess -- the greatest chess platform out -- maintains a database with all the games that have been played in their platform...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://database.lichess.org/">lichess.org open database</A>
(database.lichess.org)
</UL>
<P>
>>>
'To do the analysis, I downloaded ALL the available Chess960 data (up until 31–12–2022). For all the games played I extracted the variation, the players Elo and the final result...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/alexmolas/chess-960-lichess">Chess-960-lichess | Kaggle</A>
(kaggle.com; 'Dataset with the results of more than 14M games of Chess960. From lichess.')
</UL>
<P>
>>>
'The scripts and notebooks to donwload [sic] and process the data are available on this repo...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://github.com/AlexMolas/chess-960">GitHub - alexmolas/chess-960</A>
(github.com/AlexMolas)
</UL>
<P>
At this point the article launches into
'Mathematical framework;
'Bayesian A/B testing;
[...]'. This, of course, is the essence of the study and I won't go any further in this current post.
Let's get back to '(A)', where there's another key reference.
<P>
>>>
'This post got some attention in Reddit...'
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/109fj63/there_are_no_better_initial_positions_in_chess_960/">There are no better initial positions in Chess 960</A>
(reddit.com/r/chess; 11 January 2023)
</UL>
<P>
I could end the post here, but I need to make an admittedly subjective observation. There are two example of bias in the above references.
<P>
The first bias is 'I’m currently only interested in analyzing human games'. Huge caveat here. In my not-so-humble opinion, the CCRL is the best source of chess960 opening theory. Period. Full stop. The CCRL engines are rated at least 1000 points higher than most human players on Lichess. The engines don't make simple tactical errors and they calculate deeper into every position than any human can. If there is an unfair chess960 start position, the engines will find it, just like they find errors in most games played between humans.
<P>
I can understand ignoring the engines because humans grapple with different challenges in chess960 openings, but the purpose of the study was 'to find if there’s a *start position* that’s better than the others'. Ignoring the experience of the best players on the planet is severely limiting.
<P>
The second bias is 'Lichess -- the greatest chess platform out'. The main alternative here is Chess.com. Why ignore games played on the world's largest chess platform? Maybe there's a good reason, but I can't think of one. On a personal note, last year I investigated which of the two sites would be better to continue my own chess960 correspondence play. I determined that Chess.com was more serious about eliminating human players who cheat by using engines in games with other humans. Since my goal was playing no-engine games, I went with Chess.com. How much of the Lichess data involves concealed engine use?
<P>
Biases notwithstanding, the Molas study is an important step in evaluating the fairness of all 960 positions in chess960/FRC. I'm looking forward to understanding it in more depth.
Mark Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10101044127493771263noreply@blogger.com0