People Also Ask About Chess960

Last week's post on this blog, An Underused Resource (June 2021), led to a post on my main blog, Key Moments in Video (ditto), where I looked at a recent development in Google Search. This week's post is about another, older feature in Google Search.

A simple search on 'chess960' yields a list of about four questions which result in additional questions -- apparently unlimited in number -- after expanding any of the original questions. Shown here is the list for chess960.

And here is the same list using numbered bullets:-

People also ask:-
1. Why is Chess960 not popular?
2. Why is it called Chess 960?
3. Is Chess960 better than chess?
4. Is Chess960 the future of chess?
5. How do I get good at Chess960?
6. How popular is Chess960?
7. How many positions are there in Chess960?
8. Will chess ever be solved?
9. Is castling a real chess move?
10. Is it good to play Chess960?
11. Do people play chess 960?

The two questions about popularity (no.1 and no.6) link to further resources, and I imagine that most (all?) of the other questions also lead to other resources. Some of the questions are about fact (no.2 and no.7), others are opinion (no.3 and no.4; I say 'Yes!', but I'm obviously biased).

One curiosity is that almost all references to chess960 use the uppercase form, 'Chess960'. Almost no one does this for 'chess'. Here's a similar list for a search on 'fischer random chess':-

People also ask
1. How do you play Fischer Random Chess?
2. Can you Castle in Fischer Random Chess?
3. What does Fischer mean in chess?
4. Why is it called Chess 960?
5. Who is the greatest chess player of all time?
6. What does FF mean in chess?
7. Can a rook be called a castle?
8. Can pawns move backwards?
9. How many times can we check in chess?
10. Why is Chess960 not popular?

Question no.6 had me stumped, so I expanded it. 'FF' apparently means,

A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some chess problems.

What does that have to do with chess960? We may never know. When I get a chance, I'll take a closer look at Google's 'People also ask' feature on my main blog.

An Underused Resource

For many reasons, we don't see too many instructive videos about chess960 -- small expert base, difficult thinking process, small subscriber base -- so any time a good video comes along it's worth featuring. This clip, from Youtube channel 'Chess on the Brain with NM David Bennett', does a good job of instructing.

Chess strategy explained with Fischer Random on lichess.org (3:53:56) • 'Streamed live on Sep 28, 2020'

The description says,

No opening theory, just pure chess strategy & tactics with Chess 960 / Fischer Random Chess. I aim to provide as lucid / honest an explanation as possible of my thinking process and the ideas behind the moves rather than just streaming live games.

The games were played at time control '3+3' (three minutes per game plus three seconds per move). NM Bennett spends much of the three minutes explaining the first moves, then gets into time pressure, then plays quickly to avoid time forfeit. All in all it's good entertainment and debunks the frequent criticism -- dare we call it a myth?-- that chess960 is too esoteric for expert commentary.

There is more chess960 material on the same channel, including some videos in Spanish. None of it has as high a view count as it merits.

***

A second reason for featuring this video is that it popped up on Google search with the following annotation.

I had never seen 'key moments in this video' before and will take a closer look on my main blog. The 'key moments' here aren't really key; I would prefer the start times of each of the live games, but I'm not sure it's possible to do that.

Chessgames.com Converter Cleanup

In last month's post, Chessgames.com Start Position XREF (April 2021), I created a Chessgames.com SP Converter and finished with an action:-

My cross-reference is crude and lacks the HTML tags that make a proper web page. I'll improve it as soon as I can and, at the same time, integrate it into my other chess960 resources.

While doing that I renamed the page 'Chess960 Start Position Converter for Chessgames.com'. As for integrating it into other chess960 resources, how much attention should be given to a resource that is fundamentally misleading? I decided that only the minimum is necessary.

This is a good time for a general reminder that although a chess960 start position has eight pieces, only five pieces are necessary to determine the new position. After placing the Queen, Bishops, and Knights (NB: Bishops first!), the position Rook-King-Rook is automatically determined.

Updated Database of SPs (2021-05)

According to the previous post in the category, Updated Database of SPs (2015-06), it's been nearly six years since I last updated my database that cross references posts to start positions (SPs; see posts from the years 2000-2002). Even after such a long time, I had slightly more than 20 references to add. That's mainly a comment on how little analysis there is on this blog.

I suppose I can do better than that, but there are so many other chess960 angles to explore. At two posts a month, how much ground can I reasonably cover?

Chessgames.com Start Position XREF

In last week's post, SP864, Reddit, Chessgames.com (April 2021), I wrote,

Chessgames.com: I [...] discovered that the book was structured as an introduction to chess960 from several angles. Unfortunately, it had a big problem. The start positions used Chessgames.com numbering which is non-standard.

I also said,

I've mentioned the Chessgames.com pitfall many times on this blog, but the problem needs a more permanent warning.

To make progress, I created a cross-reference (aka XREF) between standard start position (SP) numbers and Chessgames.com numbers. I uploaded the cross-reference to my own site as a new page:-

• Chessgames.com SP Converter (m-w.com/cfaa/chess960/c960chgm.htm)

I tested the cross-reference on a discrepancy documented in a previous post, Champions Showdown, St. Louis (September 2018), where I wrote,

I noticed one anomaly that I don't understand. The official site's 'Results' page noted the start positions and their numbers for each round, but the numbers don't correspond to the system that I'm familiar with. For example, it gives the first day using 'Position 598: NQBBRKRN'. I prepared the following table for this post, where the first column is the round number and the second column is the numeric start position:-

1: SP309 NQBBRKRN
[...]

Indeed, the chess960 standard number SP309 is the equivalent of the Chessgames.com non-standard number 598. Another unsuspecting soul had fallen into the Chessgames.com trap.

My cross-reference is crude and lacks the HTML tags that make a proper web page. I'll improve it as soon as I can and, at the same time, integrate it into my other chess960 resources.

SP864, Reddit, Chessgames.com

In the few weeks since since my previous post, I've received three noteworthy messages worthy of separate posts. I'll list the messages here according to the order in which I received them.

SP864: The first message was a comment by Andrey D. to my most recent post, TCEC C960 FRC3, (March 2021):-

You might be interested in knowing the solution for Black in a particularly difficult SP we once discussed.

In fact, there are two 'particularly difficult' SPs that are related by switching two pieces. I'll reference them via my 'Database of SPs'. The first is:-

• SP864 - BBQRKRNN

The second is:-

• SP868 - QBBRKRNN
• A Difficult SP Revisited (May 2019)

I include a second link for SP868 because I haven't updated the database since I wrote the post two years ago. At the end of this post, I've attached a substantial portion of Andrey D.'s comment in PGN format. It's an important discovery.

Reddit: The second message was an email. My email address can be found on my profile linked in the top right of every page in this blog ('View my complete profile'). The message said,

Maybe you could share some of your articles on /r/chess960, which is pretty much dead.

I replied,

Please feel free to link any of my blog posts on Reddit.

If I could find the time, I would be more proactive than that. The Reddit topic is at chess960 related topics (reddit.com). The world needs a public forum to discuss chess960/FRC.

Chessgames.com: The third message was also an email. It had two PDF attachments that were introduced with:-

It is a pleasure for me to have carried out this humble book with the 960 initial positions, obtained from the page chessgames.com, making screenshots of the 960 positions and diagramming them in the "DIAGTRANSFER" software and placing them in my book. It is in Spanish because I am from Argentina.

I used Google Translate to understand the Spanish and discovered that the book was structured as an introduction to chess960 from several angles. Unfortunately, it had a big problem. The start positions used Chessgames.com numbering which is non-standard. I last saw this a year ago in a post about the '2019 Champions Showdown', Spectating Chess960 (April 2020):-

Day 4 started with a curiosity. The first start position (SP784 BBRQKNRN) was the twin of the position on Day 3 (SP175 NRNKQRBB). [...] NB: After choosing the Day 4 position, TD Tony Rich called it 'SP779'. He was using the Chessgames.com Random Position Generator, which does not follow the standard numbering.

I've mentioned the Chessgames.com pitfall many times on this blog, but the problem needs a more permanent warning. A good place to mention it would be my page Chess960 Start Positions (m-w.com). The page appears in the results for various searches and gets a fair amount of traffic. A table converting between the two numbering systems might also be useful.

***

Some GM analysis:-

[Event "SP864"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "W"]
[Black "B"]
[Result "*"]
[Annotator "Andrey D."]
[SetUp "1"]
[PlyCount "0"]
[FEN "bbqrkrnn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BBQRKRNN w - - 0 1"]

1.Ng3 c5
  ( 1...f6 )
  ( 1...Nf6 )
  ( 1...g6 )
2.Nh5 f6 3.Nxg7+ Kf7 4.Nh5 Ng6 {This counter-intuitive gambit is in fact very logical upon a closer look; note that White's only piece [pawns included] that has moved so far is his h5-knight which will be forced to retreat soon. Meanwhile Black has already played ...c5 and ...Ng6, and is now intending ...d5 followed by ...Qg4! and ...Nf4!, gaining further tempi. The semi-open g-file can also be used rather by Black than by White [especially if the latter castles h-side].} 5.Nf3 d5 6.b4 b6 7.bxc5 d4
  ( {Morphy-style! However simple} 7...bxc5 {was also fine for Black.} )
8.Qa3
  ( 8.Bxd4 Rxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxc5 {and one of White's knights will be lost} )
  ( 8.cxb6 {ignoring development altogether} 8...Bxf3 9.gxf3 Qh3 {with a number of threats for the sacrificed material.} )
8...Qg4 9.Ng3 Nf4 {the roles are now reversed and it's White who has to play Rg1, because if 10.0-0? then 10...d3! 11.cxd3 Nxe2+ 12.Nxe2 Bxf3} 10.Rg1 bxc5 11.Qxc5 e5 {And Black, who has a very strong initiative for two pawns, went on to win in a long and absolutely crazy fight!} *

I wouldn't be surprised to find a similar line for SP868.

TCEC C960 FRC3

On my main blog, where I've been tracking the world's two foremost, ongoing engine vs. engine competitions, the most recent fortnightly post, TCEC FRC3, CCC Rapid 2021 : Both Finals Underway (March 2021), noted,

FRC3 [Fischer Random Chess 3] has reached the final match, where Stockfish and KomodoDragon are tied with one win each after 29 of the 50 games have been played. The following chart from the TCEC Wiki shows the different stages of the event.

Here's the chart mentioned in the quote, taken from TCEC FRC 3 (wiki.chessdom.org):-

I ended the post on my main blog saying,

After the final match finishes, I'll have more to say about the tournament on my chess960 blog. I covered the previous edition in TCEC FRC2. In that event, Stockfish beat LCZero +8-0=42.

At the time I wrote the referenced post TCEC FRC2 (December 2020) -- which incorporated the same TCEC flow chart shown above -- the TCEC treated chess960 as a second class citizen, reported only in a section of the TCEC Wiki's home page. Since then, the main page section has been promoted to a separate page, TCEC FRC 2 (wiki.chessdom.org), which announces,

Though at the time advertised as [a] Bonus event, the TCEC Fischer Random Chess will as of now be a regular part of seasonal events.

According to the Wiki's history page, the move happened exactly a month ago:-

23:07, 27 February 2021 [...] (moved from Main page)

'Will be a regular part of [TCEC] seasonal events' -- that's one small step for TCEC, one significant step for chess960. The TCEC Wiki's 'FRC 3' page includes a chart showing the scores of the event's four stages.

A similar chart is now available on the Wiki's 'FRC 2' page. In the 'FRC 3' final, KomodoDragon beat Stockfish by a score of +2-1=47. A 94% draw rate echoes the sort of result we expect from a traditional chess match (SP518 RNBQKBNR) between engines. Will the TCEC FRC organizers be forced to dictate the chess960 opening variations, just as they do for SP518? Let's hope not.

Except for an occasional CCRL game, I can't remember ever looking at an engine vs. engine chess960 game. Is there anything to be learned from such an exercise, or is the play of the engines beyond comprehension? Watch this space; if not for FRC3, maybe for FRC4 or beyond.

[The title of my 'TCEC FRC2' post on this blog is nearly identical to the title on the TCEC Wiki, 'TCEC FRC 2'. To avoid confusion in future reports on the TCEC C960 events, I decided to change the title on this current FRC3 post.]