Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer introduced it in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening preparation and to encourage creativity in play. It uses the same board and pieces as classical chess, but the pieces on each player's home rank are set up at random under rules that keep bishops on opposite colours for each player and preserve the right to castle for both sides. This gives 960 distinct possible starting positions, and the random setup makes memorizing openings unfeasible, so players rely on skill and creativity. FIDE added Chess960 to an appendix of the Laws of Chess in 2008, and its first officially sanctioned world championship was held in 2019.
Facts
Sport
Game Type (category) Classification
Player Count Connections
Derived From
Long-Form Articles
Sources
1. Chess960 (Wikipedia)
Infobox: players
2
Lead
Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank.
Introduction
It was introduced by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.