Chess961 Rumours Gather Pace

Boffins who should have been doing something far more important recently discovered that popular Variant Chess960 – otherwise known as Fish Are Random Chess- has always had a hidden 961st starting position. What’s more, Chess961 is set to be introduced to lichess.com before it hits any inferior websites.

While it has been reported elsewhere that the phantom Chess961 position was simply a blunder, I can reveal that IM Loof Lirpa, one of 10,000 biographers of Bobby Fischer, has an alternative theory.

“Bobby Fischer personally spread Chess960 throughout the world, and we should all be grateful. He was also such a genius that it’s impossible the 961st position was a straightforward oversight. I’ve got 2 theories. The first was that the position was missing as a sort of code to us in the future to warn us about something. My money’s on it being a warning about Hikaru.

“The second theory is more sinister than the Evil Messiah Hikaru one, it’s that Fischer believed position 961 to be a shape-shifting lizard, inserted into the game by the shady illuminati. Illuminati chess positions aren’t a new theory, David Icke has been talking about these for ages.”

Other theories popular on the lichess.com forums are that the 961st position came about when popular education tool Chessable bent time and retrospectively invented the position in order to sell more courses. Forum regular GMRonWeasleySo has correctly pointed out that Yasser Seirawan’s 961st position Life Time Repertoire course existed, and had just been put on sale, minutes before the existence of the 961st position was verified.

Suggestions that Chessable have access to their own proprietary time mover technology are not new- the theory first appeared when Anish Giri seemed to play a line in the French against Magnus, then go back in time in order to create a chessable course to plug in the post-game interview.

It’s also been noted that 961 is the square of 31. The 31st Chess Olympiad was boycotted by Anatoly Karpov after a dispute with his federation. What does he know?

Meanwhile, it’s understood that the introduction of Chess961 to lichess.com will coin-cide with the launch of Lichess’ new cryptocurrency Horseycoin. There will be a 961 minute chess961 marathon arena with all the horseycoin in the world being allocated to the top 961 players. Horseycoin is unique in that it’s value grows and shrinks as owners gain or lose rating points on lichess.