Magnus opinion on symmetrical play in chess 960

Here is an interview with Magnus talking about chess 960 in the run up to the 2022 world championship:

Magnus on fischer random chess

He begins enthusiastically about 960 then becomes reserved towards the end. His initial thought is that playing symmetrically is the default way to play chess 960 in the absence of deep analysis.

From my experience the opposite is true. Playing symmetrically depends on the number of undefended pieces in the start position that will disturb piece coordination down the track if left unaddressed.

I think playing symmetrically is less beneficial in chess 960 then it is in classical chess because of the undefended pieces that occur more frequently in the start.

Yes, the rooks are undefended in the standard position, but they don't impact piece coordination in the opening phase. In chess 960, symmetrical players don't have the convenience of knowing that.

I wonder what you think?

Chess960: The search for good opening gambits

I've always been interested in chess960 pawn gambits. At one time a few years ago I became negative that there were too few opening gambits available to be creative with for a few reasons including the problem of black playing symmetrically. After all a good opening gambit needs to trade pawn material for ongoing initiative or at least an ongoing development edge in the race to enter the middle game first. But in Chess960 there is also a bigger priority to increase piece harmony instead of giving material early. In standard chess, the pieces are already in harmony from the start and so opening gambits become more attractive.

I think Hikaru Nakamura is hunting for a good gambit line too and I hope over the coming years he finds plenty of them! Meanwhile I found one of my own and I could well be the first person in the history of chess to have found it (yeah for me).

SP158 white to move:
Find a good follow up move to the gambit
(note the break in symmetry so early)

3.Qf3! 

Normally we don't like to move the queen early from our standard chess principals. But here she occupies a square that cannot be cheaply attacked. 

Even better, there is not a single reply black can make to protect the f4 pawn that doesn't either restrict development or risk a serious weakening of the pawn structure.

Candidate moves for black:

• 3...Qf3?! {blocks the g8 bishop}
• 3....g5?  {mistake because of Bd4 incoming}
• 3...Qg5?! {but now white has Ne2 incoming}
• 3...Bd6?! {blocks the c8 knight and the d7 pawn}
• 3...c5?!  {ignoring the pawn but controlling d4}
  then
  4.Nab3...Qc7 {white's bishops will be better}

So black really does get compensation. This is a good opening gambit line.

Cool.

Enjoy 960.

Chess960: puzzle 22

Struck upon an amazing double queening tactical puzzle out of the opening for SP166 which in one primary variation has four queens on the board! It is advanced because it contains many tactical motifs primarily a quiet move, discovered attack, sacrifice, distraction(decoy), advanced pawn, exposed king and a defensive move!

SP166 white to play: move the only piece
 that wins in three moves

Solution bottom left (hint: the same piece
has two alternate moves to win)

Answer:

e3!! (or e4!)

1.e3!! .. cxd2

2.Bc4+!.. Nxc4 (Kg6 leads to mate)

3.b8Q and black cannot avoid loosing a queen while white will have two

if:

1.e3!! .. Qxd2

2.Be2!!.. and the only counter-attack ..Nd5 no longer works

1.Qxc7?.. cxd2

2.b8Q  .. Qe1+

3.Kf3  .. d1Q and black plays for a win with four kings on the board!

Comes from the opening for SP166:

1. f4 Nc6 2. b4 f6 3. Nc3 a6 4. a4 d5 5. b5 d4 6. bxc6 dxc3 7. Qa7 Qa2 8. Qxb8
Qxb1 9. Qxc8+ Kf7 10. cxb7 Qxc1+ 11. Kf2 Nb6 white to play

Chess960: Watch out for the Chivalry Knights!

The chivalry knights are the name I've given to the many Chess960 positions that have two knights one square apart (or three as a variant).

They are one of the biggest threats in the opening phase of Chess960 creating many opportunities especially in blitz.

The key thing to remember about them is that they potentially hit two weak spots ahead of their position. Here is an example.

Black thinks that d6 might be a good idea to limit the forward scope of the chivalry knight pair. Good idea right? 

Well no. 

Firstly it breaks opening principals by wasting a tempo releasing the light bishop which already is released via e1-h5. Secondly, now e6 is a huge hole in black's position for the chivalry knights to exploit via the red lines indicated. There is a potential fork on e6 which would force the loss of the bishop pair and prevent castling. 

A would be disaster!

The chivalry knights can move forward to the square that separates them shifted three ranks up  - in only two moves - and they can get there from different directions. Two knights that coordinate with each other are like an octopus piece with tentacles that stretch all over the board.

Next time you see the chivalry knights in a Chess960 opening, have this pattern etched into your brain:

Enjoy 960

Chess960: Puzzle 21

From SP 815 we get an awesome tactic that would never have happened in standard chess.

SP815

White to play and win:

Answer bottom left hand corner of this page

Notice the remnants of the start position in this tactic? Very difficult to get two kings in the corner and two undefended bishops next to each other in the corner.

Check out the solution below!

Solution:

1. Ka2!! ... Qxg1?

2. e6! Black has no way to stop the e-pawn queening.

if instead:

1. e6? ... Qe1+!

2.Ka2 ... Qxe6

if instead:

1.Ka2!! ... Qe1!?

2.Bd5! ... Qxe5

3.Bc4 and black cannot avoid Qxb6 ruining blacks away-side pawns

Chess960: The weak squares write a story

"The weak squares on the chess board determine what is possible in a game of chess. If we learn how to keep a track of how they change with each move, we become able to read the main story and the subplots that are being written in each game. Then once seeing them becomes automatic, we will have so much time to think even in blitz, we can take it to the next level, to be able to write a good story in the game. That is why Chess960 will never go away, because it is just chess generalized, the complete landscape for reading and writing the story of dynamic chess" - HarryO Chess960 Jungle blog

Chess960 puzzle no.20

Symmetry is an interesting subject in Chess960. Sometimes black can play symmetrically, sometimes black can't.

Here is a great little puzzle demonstrating some of the more bizarre situations Chess960 symmetry can throw up:

SP366 Black to play (castling all sides permitted):

Why can't black copy white's play and come out materially equal?

Answer bottom left corner

Answer: because black's queen ends up undefended!

With best play:

3.Bxb8..Bxb1,

4.Bxc7! Bxc2

5.Bxd8! Bxd1

6.Bxe7! Bxe2??

7.Bxf8

3.Bxb8

7.Bxf8

Chess960 puzzle no.19

One of the most incredible openings I have ever seen in chess960 after only eight moves. You would think clearly white is better but white has some big weaknesses even though black's king is exposed.

SP650: Black to play (castling all sides/colours still possible)

Which side do you think is better in this position?

Answer bottom left corner below

Answer: black is better because of serious weakness on e2

(checked with Stockfish engine)

8)     ...Nf4  threatening bishop and fork on e2

9)Bf3  ...     defending fork

9)     ...Nd4  threatening e2 fork and attacking a4

10)Nb6+...Kb8  quiet move before the next wave of attacks

11)Ng3 ...     defending fork and developing

11)    ...g5!  threatening to undermine Bf3 and preparing Qg6

12)Nxa8...g4!  undermining e2 defense

13)Qf1 ...      stepping out of fork attacking a6

13)    ...Bb5  black actually does a bit of defending!

14)d3  ...     guarding c2 against Qg6 and attacking b4

14)    ...gxf3 capturing material

15)gxf3..      else queening threat!

15)    ...Qg6  threatening mating line beginning Nxc2!

white is completely lost

Chess960 - not a fool mate!

In standard chess, the fool's mate is the shortest way to loose needing only two moves. It is not a very pretty mate though. Problem is that it requires illogical play to happen. White would never actually play that badly.

Boring ugly and unlikely Fool's mate of standard chess

But now, thanks to Bobby Fischer the inventor of Chess960, The Chess world finally has a much prettier fool's mate. It is beautiful mate because each move is logical and principled. You don't need to be a fool to play this one!

SP168: A beautiful version of the Fool's mate
because each move is principled

Enjoy 960 and hope you never become the fool - but in chess 960, when you are a fool, you can be a beautiful one.

Chess960: How to see the power of the chivalry knights

The chivalry knights in Chess960 are amazingly strong attackers that can leap forward and pounce on the opponent if they are unaware. They tend to tread on each other toes since they compete for the same color squares, but that can also work in their advantage. Here is an example position:

SP110: White creates a weak d3 square on the third rank

that either one or both chivalry knight's can leap into

If black could exchange off white's light square bishop, white would have almost no hope of preventing the chivalry knights coming forward and sitting on the d3 square. The square is so weak it can virtually be considered an outpost square for a knight already. Notice that neither of white's chivalry knights can do anything about the d3 square.

Key point: So the chivalry knights are powerless against the enemies equivalent knights!

White's idea of playing c3 with the plan of breaking with d4 and opening up the c-file for the rook, is completely flawed because white has failed to grasp the power of black's chivalry knights.

So I thought it would be a good idea, to help players visualize the outpost squares that exist for the chivalry knights, without needing to do any calculation.

The threatened outposts squares of the chivalry knights

exist on the the enemies third rank

Compare the two diagrams above. You will see that the green squares are threatening to become outpost squares for the chivalry knights if the enemy were to leave them weakened.

Key point: No calculation is needed, just remember the pattern above (it is very simple). The squares are on the same file as the knights, always on the sixth rank.

and be open to the possibility that you or your opponent can fall for the trap of letting the chivalry knights come forward and rule the position.

Good luck

Enjoy 960.

Chess960: Transcript of Showdown in Saint Louis 2015 - SP436 Caruana v Nakamura (with a comment by me)

Here is a transcript of the second fischer random game between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana at the Showdown in Saint Louis competition 2015.

Rumours have it that the organizers experienced technical difficulties during the event, so there are no PGN records for the games available in the public domain. I have had to reconstruct the games from the video recordings on Youtube and Chess24. In order to save time and effort, I have transcribed only the opening phases of each of the games, since that is what interests us in Chess960 - the rest is just chess!

To save space in the comment text, the three commentators are initialed as Yasser Seirawan (YS), Jennifer Shahade (JS) and Maurice Ashley (MA).

Game 1 SP436: Fabiano Caruana verses Hikaru Nakamura

NOTE: Some browsers may not display the game properly

Transcriptions of the other other games will follow over coming days......

My commentary:

Move 13 Caruana to play - how beautiful is that!

Nakamura playing black, deliberately drops a pawn and then offers a queen trade!?! That breaks all the conventions of normal chess (don't simplify when down in material). But like the commentators said, Nakamura is bluffing and Caruana doesn't fall for it. If white exchanges queens, black gets a really good game with a knight biff on b4 and an attacking rook and the bishop pair. Check out the beautiful X-RAY defense by Naka here. His queen is indirectly defending both his undefended bishops without a direct line to them. Naka is even prepared to expose his weak back rank and increase the risk.

Cool stuff. C'mon people, where is the excitement for Chess960 Fischer Random Style. You would never get a position like this is old chess. It is only move 12 and so much has happened already!

Enjoy 960

Chess960 puzzle no.18

One of the most amazing queen entrapment tactical scenarios I've seen in Chess960 yet. Enjoy the puzzle.

SP598 White to play: Can white catch the queen
and get back to material equality?

Solution below

Solution: NO! Black's queen cannot be captured without significant losses. Best is to sacrifice the exchange to keep black's queen out of play.

Wrong solution:

6.Be3...cxd4 7.cxd4...Ng6! 8.f3...Bb4+ 9.Ke2...Nf4+ 
now follows the amazing line:

10.Bxf4 b6 11. Ndf2 Ba6+ 12. Ke3 Bxf1 13. Rd1 Nc6 14. Ng3 Bxg2 15. Rxg1 Bxh3

Correct solution:

6.Ng3...e5!! 7.Ne2...d6! 8.Qh5...Bg4!! 9.Qxg4...Qh2 
white is down an exchange but black's queen is out of play

Chess960: Transcript of Showdown in Saint Louis 2015 - SP112 Negi v Yifan

Here is a transcript of the first fischer random game between Hou Yifan and Parimarjan Negi at the Showdown in Saint Louis competition 2015.

Rumours have it that the organizers experienced technical difficulties during the event, so there are no PGN records for the games available in the public domain. I have had to reconstruct the games from the video recordings on Youtube and Chess24. In order to save time and effort, I have transcribed only the opening phases of each of the games since that is what interests us in Chess960 - the rest is just chess!

To save space in the comment text, the three commentators are initialed as Yasser Seirawan (YS), Jennifer Shahade (JS) and Maurice Ashley (MA).

Game 1 SP112: Parimarjan Negi vs Hou Yifan

NOTE: Some browsers may not display the game properly

Transcriptions of the other other games will follow over coming days......

Chess960: Transcript of Showdown in Saint Louis 2015 - SP112 Nakamura v Caruana

Here is a transcript of the first fischer random game between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana at the Showdown in Saint Louis competition 2015.

Rumours have it that the organizers experienced technical difficulties during the event, so there are no PGN records for the games available in the public domain. I have had to reconstruct the games from the video recordings on Youtube and Chess24. In order to save time and effort, I have transcribed only the opening phases of each of the games, since that is what interests us in Chess960 - the rest is just chess!

To save space in the comment text, the three commentators are initialed as Yasser Seirawan (YS), Jennifer Shahade (JS) and Maurice Ashley (MA).

Game 1 SP112: Hikaru Nakamura verses Fabiano Caruana

NOTE: Some browsers may not display the game properly

Transcriptions of the other other games will follow over coming days......

Chess960: The more the better? part 3

This is a continuation of the discussion of Basque Chess960 that was had *here* and *here*. In Basque Chess960 each player simultaneously plays one board as white and the other as black. I've played it a few times and think that it is a wonderful way to play Chess960 and really makes sense because it eliminates any differences in advantage that the white player has.

I found that it is even possible to play Blitz Basque Chess960 because two games are not that difficult to keep a track of - our brains seem to be pretty good at seeing in double! If anything, I found that Basque Chess960 actually maintained or improved the quality of my blitz play because I could not stop to think - it forced me to play instinctively. Stopping to think in Blitz can often make your play worse not better.

With that in mind, I was surprised that the two commentators at the Showdown in Saint Louis 2015 exhibition match between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana were intrigued by the Basque Chess960 idea too. Here is a transcript of their thoughts as they were commenting game one of the Chess960 competition:

Jennifer Shahade: "I really wish that we had Basque Chess for Fischer Random don't you? So that we could see how Fabi would tackle playing white (in contrast to Hikaru)"

Yasser Seirawan: "Oh that would be intriguing for sure"

Jennifer Shahade: "I think in Fischer Random it really makes a lot of sense, because you get to show....cause it's to easy to say after the game 'hey white just has an edge in this particular Fischer random'. But if you play Basque Chess960 you have to show it from both sides"

Basque Chess960 is a lot of fun, equalises fairness 100% and you get twice the game for each start position. You can also play it against the computer if you set up two Winboards side by side on your screen.

Enjoy 960

Chess960: Showdown in St. Louis - Fischer Random Style

I'm in the middle of transcribing the Chess960 portion of the video recording of Hikaru Nakamura playing Fabiano Caruana in Chess960 (Fischer Random) at the recently concluded Showdown in St. Louis 2015.

Here is an interesting idea that the commentators mentioned during game one of the Fischer Random portion of the event, as to why Chess960 has been slow on the uptake.

Jennifer Shahade:  "Obviously Fischer random is just perfect for somebody like Nakamura he really loves the game. I really like it too. Why do you think it hasn't begun to be even more popular Yasser?"

Yasser Seirawan: "You know one of the things, I've spoken to a lot of my colleagues on this very question. One of the things is a lot of my colleagues feel it has to do with amateur players. That is to say amateur players are so vested in their openings, they want to see players playing the French defenses and their Sicilian dragons and they know those openings so very well, they want the players to play their favourite openings and favourite defenses. Instead, when the players are playing a game of Fischer random, then a lot of the amateur players say "gee I don't know this position, I don't know what's going on". A lot of the professional players like Fischer Random and would like to see more Fischer random events. Its sort of like the organizers are hearing from the amateurs "no don't do it we want them to play OUR openings, OUR defenses". Its kind of an intriguing idea right?"

Jennifer Shahade: "It is strange because normally you hear amatuers complaining about how much opening analysis there is but when push comes to shove they like it in a sick way."

Yasser Seirawan: {laughs}

If that is the case that amateurs are actually the ones holding up the progress of Chess960, we just have to wait for critical mass to occur when finally the amateurs make the switch to 960. According to the Chess960 popularity counter *here*, we have probably got another 20-30 years to go until the tipping point occurs. Popularity is steadily rising, but there is still a long way to go.

In the mean time, remember that Chess960 is not here to replace Chess, just be a viable loved alternative to chess and be its equal.

Enjoy 960.

Chess960: When the queen comes out early

Found a brilliant example of a start position where the queen can come out with attack as soon as the second move. The amazing thing is that there is no way to attack her and she is immediately putting pressure on the opponents position:

SP169: Queen out on move 2!

White starts with the Birds Opening System 1.f4 except here this opens a line for the queen to come straight out into the middle of the board. White follows up with the strong move 3.c4!? which achieves multiple things:

• Immediately attacks d5
• The d5 pawn is pinned against the undefended d8 bishop
• If black tries to attack the queen to gain tempo with something like c6/Bb6, white plays c5!? blunting the attack and preventing the corner knight from being able to develop.
• White has not really neglected king safety because of O-O/Bf2 combination.

I haven't seen such a clear example like this before for bringing out the queen early with no cheap way of counter attacking her. Black has plenty of options, but it is an amazing little start position #169 that's for sure! It all stems from the pin on the d5 pawn against black's dark bishop.

Chess960 puzzle no.17

Should white be freaked out by white's attack here? I found myself ruminating over this question during a game. I realise that this does not even look like a Chess960 problem any more but when you think about it, how else could black's knight have reached d6 without it being Chess960? The point is that Chess960 does throw up different versions of classic chess mid-game themes.

It turns out to be a nice puzzle because it can be broken down into individual problems that can  be independently analysed to arrive at a solution. The threat is black can aim all his big pieces down the f-h files in tandem with opening up the kings's safety - a standard hack attack.

SP076 Black to play - does black have a serious attack on white's king?

Answer bottom left hand corner of this page

Solution:

Break the problem down into manageable chunks.

A) If ...f5 white plays e4 with a strong attack

B) if ...g5 white has the defense Bh4! followed by g3

C) if ...h5-h6 white has g3 stopping black's progress

A+B+C means white can safely proceed with a queen-side (c-side) attack

Answer: no!

Chess960: Playing Komodo-9 64bit

I decided to play Komodo-9 in a game of Chess960 because the consensus is that it plays natural human looking moves, which might be a nice way to practice Chess960 openings.

So I played Komodo-9 on SP456 - a nice easy number to remember!

Here is the situation at move 2:

SP456 White (Komodo-9) to play move 2

My first move as black was a very natural move that takes good control of the center. Komodo's first move f4 surprised me a little. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to commit to weakening the light squares on the kingside so early when there are better moves. f4 does threatens f5 at some point which would kick black's knight if I planted it on e6. However that is not a threat. I would instead play Nc6/Bd7 which opens up some nice lines on the light squares for my bishop against white's kingside. 

But now I really got a shock. Komodo-9 decides to play Qf2?! This cannot be a good move. There is no point playing out the queen so early while also blocking the dark square bishop in the process. Trying to defend f4/f5 so soon seems to be silly.

So I analysed what my other engine Stockfish thought of Komodo's move. Here is the result:

Stockfish at depth 22 thinks that after 2.Qf2?! Black should play ...Nd6 with a slightly better score -0.16. On the other hand, Komodo-9 at depth 18 thinks that black should play ...Nd6 but that white is slightly better at 0.14.

So after 2.Qf2?! we can see that Komodo-9 has issues playing Chess960 openings. Firstly, it is a slower engine than Stockfish when it comes to achieving the same depth. Stockfish got to depth 22 really quickly. Perhaps the depth of the calculation is really important in the Chess960 opening which favours Stockfish.

But Komodo's issue is not just depth, but also evaluation. There is no way in hell you can tell me that after 2.Qf2?! white is a bit better? Stockfish's evaluation of the position seems to me to be about right if not even a bit too conservative in it's favouring of black after 2.Qf2?! Nd6.

So I thought I would take a look at the CCRL 24-hour-a-day computer engine competition. In standard Chess Komodo appears to have the current lead. But in Chess960 the story is different. Stockfish is still the leader with a 50 point ELO rating higher than Komodo.

Well there you go. A little bit of engine trivia for you.

Enjoy 960

Chess960: Puzzle no.16

Dear followers of this blog, enjoy this unusual puzzle. It requires an understanding of what a pawn island in Chess is. For more information see a definition Pawn islands (wiki). Often in Chess960 openings we try to avoid creating long lasting pawn islands because the isolated pawn or pawns are a long term target of attack for our opponent to exploit. There are exceptions of course!

In this position, both white and black have three pawn islands each.

White has three pawn islands (a-e),(f),(g-h).
Black has three pawn islands, (a-f), (g), (h).

Here is the puzzle,  the answer is surprising!

SP455 move 2 white to play:

If white captures the g-pawn, who will have the
greatest number of pawn islands before move 7?
White, black or equal number?

Solution given bottom left hand corner

Answer: White!

2. fxg5      white has three pawn islands, black two.

2. ...h6     no change, white=3, black=2.

3. gxh6 Qxh6 white=2, black=1

4. h3   Be5! no change

5. g4   Bh2  no change

6. Rg2  Qxh3 white=2, black=1

White has more pawn islands than black. If instead white tries 5.Nbc3 or any other move, white still has one extra pawn island than black.