This week, I played — and won — my very first game of Chess960. As I mentioned on Twitter a couple of days ago, it’s a fascinating and bizarre way to play the game.
For the uninitiated, Chess960 is also known as Fischer Random Chess and is a variant of the game created by World Champion Bobby Fischer. What’s different about it is that each player’s starting back row is randomized, playing a higher emphasis on creativity and talent than on the memorization of opening moves. Applied with a couple of additional rules, this results in 960 possible opening positions — hence the name. I’ve always struggled to play a strong opening — the middle and endgames are my strong suit — so from a beginning game perspective, Chess960 is a refreshing way to play.
I’ve included my first game below, for the curious, which involved plenty of creativity in the endgame to both avoid checkmate and to win the game. If there are any other chess players who’d like to play, head over to chess.com (or add the chess.com app on Facebook) and look me up. I always welcome new challengers.
###pgn###
[Event “Let’s Play!”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2011.03.24”]
[White “AzadBaranEmiroglu”]
[Black “stitzelj”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “1230”]
[BlackElo “1410”]
[TimeControl “1 in 3 days”]
[Termination “stitzelj won by checkmate”]
[Variant “Chess 960”]
[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “brnnqkrb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BRNNQKRB w KQkq – 0 1”]
1.b3 Nd6 2.d4 g5 3.g4 Rg6 4.Ne3 e6 5.Nd3 Nc6 6.Bxc6 bxc6 7.Ne5 Rh6 8.c4 Rxh2 9.Qc3 Ne4 10.Qc2 c5
11.d5 exd5 12.cxd5 Nxf2 13.Nxd7+ Qxd7 14.Bxh8 Re8 15.Qc3 h5 16.Nf5 f6 17.Qxf6+ Kg8 18.Nh6+ Kh7 19.gxh5 Rg8 20.Nf7 Qh3+
21.Ke1 Nd3+ 22.Kd2 Rxe2+ 23.Kxe2 Re8+ 24.Kd2 Qe3+ 25.Kc2 Nb4+ 26.Kb2 Qd2+ 27.Ka3 Qxa2# 0-1
%%%pgn%%%
