In arena tournaments, you must make the first move within 20 seconds. In normal chess, most players have their opening repertoires and can quickly decide on which move to make, even as Black.
But in chess960, first you need to grasp the array, and in addition Black must defend against threats posed by White's first move... 20 second restriction is too short. Please give more time, say 60 seconds for the first move in chess960.
Typically, Lichess tournaments are going to be fast (< 5+0) games, regardless of the variant. Therefore, adding an optional 60 seconds into each game will dramatically slow down the number of games you get to play.
I can imagine this being used when playing a top player in order to lower the amount of points available to them based purely off of the time it takes to start a game.
While I do agree that the short startup-time forces you to quickly analyze the position in a way unlike all other variants, keep in mind that it also forces your opponent to think in the same time. Black also has to make the first move within 25 seconds, so I personally don't see this as too much of a problem.
I have never seen any chess960 tournaments. How can I join one?
lichess.org/tournamentOn the left hand side there is a list of Lichess tournaments, you can see the 960 ones there.
They could just make the clock start ticking once the time is up. That way the only games that would take longer are the ones that would have been forfeits.
I think it's more logical to start the clock immediately and enforce the first-move restriction inside normal time-control.
Or, if the restriction is kept outside normal time, I request a timer for the 25 seconds, just like a shoot-clock in basketball.
The most logical is to never rate games where one of the players has not made any moves!
Now it's extended to 50 secs. Thanks for quick fix, Thibault and developers!
I think it is one of the pains of 960 that people take so much time on their first move, off the clock.
I'm all for allocating one's clock time as one sees fit, but thinking for an additional free 40s about the opening in an otherwise 3 0 game is really annoying.
1. e4 or 1. Ne3 is good in almost all opening pos and it doesn't take 20s to pick one of them.
I suggest to have the same timer as in all variants, and a 960-specific button that starts the clock and the game without playing a move, meaning "I want to think about my first move for a while."
"1. e4 or 1. Ne3 is good in almost all opening pos and it doesn't take 20s to pick one of them."
This is the worst chess-related argument I've ever seen or heard.
