Over the board 960 • page 4/4 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

Frankly, I think 960, or 958 if you exclude the normal and mirror positions, are far too many positions. Could it not be something to shrink this number down to 100 or thereabouts. 100 positions that more or less resemble a normal setup. G. K. said 20 years ago that frankly speaking 95% of the positions are like poison in the eye. Rather, he said if the remaining percentages would be more like normal chess symmetry there might be a chance that this format could be something

If you dislike some less standard positions, feel free to play Chess18 with similarly-minded friends. It is a legitimate idea, but very different from Fischer's one. (As far as I know.) Personally I see more unusual starting positions in Chess960 like a challenge. Some starting positions admittedly lack harmony, but we are still trying to reach it, like when solving a puzzle. (Not in its the chess-related meaning of the word.) The cornered queen can be activated after moves like a2-a4, which leads to fresh positions. And there is also some symmetry in Chess960, as the opponent's pieces are equally poorly placed.
There are perhaps some 20-30 positions which are really difficult to play with Black, although in terms of computer evaluations the position might be compared to some relatively popular standard openings like the Alekhine Defence, the Modern and so on. Removing those 20-30 positions could make some sense (if we were able to agree on which 30 positions belong to this group), but reducing their number from 960 to 18 would not please Fischer.
It is also questionable which positions should be viewed as more standard, as different people have differing views. If you insert kings with queens, castlings will look differently, but it will be a very standard position anyway. If you switch Ke1 and Ng1 (compared to the standard starting position), you might still reach standard theoretical positions with both sides castling short. And if you modify the standard starting position by switching rooks and bishops (Rh1 with Bf1 and/or Ra1 with Bc1), it will still look very much standard.
That said, in standard chess we need to decide what to do with the bishops and it is an interesting branching point, different players might opt for different solutions. With bishops in the corners it is clear that one should move advance the b-pawn or the g-pawn to develop the bishop. Standard starting position (518) is a great suggestion for the only one, but there is sooo much theory nowadays that I would very much like to see more variety without memorising, and Chess960 offers precisely that.

@Nordlandia said in #12: > Frankly, I think 960, or 958 if you exclude the normal and mirror positions, are far too many positions. Could it not be something to shrink this number down to 100 or thereabouts. 100 positions that more or less resemble a normal setup. G. K. said 20 years ago that frankly speaking 95% of the positions are like poison in the eye. Rather, he said if the remaining percentages would be more like normal chess symmetry there might be a chance that this format could be something If you dislike some less standard positions, feel free to play Chess18 with similarly-minded friends. It is a legitimate idea, but very different from Fischer's one. (As far as I know.) Personally I see more unusual starting positions in Chess960 like a challenge. Some starting positions admittedly lack harmony, but we are still trying to reach it, like when solving a puzzle. (Not in its the chess-related meaning of the word.) The cornered queen can be activated after moves like a2-a4, which leads to fresh positions. And there is also some symmetry in Chess960, as the opponent's pieces are equally poorly placed. There are perhaps some 20-30 positions which are really difficult to play with Black, although in terms of computer evaluations the position might be compared to some relatively popular standard openings like the Alekhine Defence, the Modern and so on. Removing those 20-30 positions could make some sense (if we were able to agree on which 30 positions belong to this group), but reducing their number from 960 to 18 would not please Fischer. It is also questionable which positions should be viewed as more standard, as different people have differing views. If you insert kings with queens, castlings will look differently, but it will be a very standard position anyway. If you switch Ke1 and Ng1 (compared to the standard starting position), you might still reach standard theoretical positions with both sides castling short. And if you modify the standard starting position by switching rooks and bishops (Rh1 with Bf1 and/or Ra1 with Bc1), it will still look very much standard. That said, in standard chess we need to decide what to do with the bishops and it is an interesting branching point, different players might opt for different solutions. With bishops in the corners it is clear that one should move advance the b-pawn or the g-pawn to develop the bishop. Standard starting position (518) is a great suggestion for the only one, but there is sooo much theory nowadays that I would very much like to see more variety without memorising, and Chess960 offers precisely that.

Mennonite

#32

For the sake of an example, what would be one of the positions that would be particularly difficult for Black?

Nordlandia

#33

This were regarded as the best position for white a couple of years ago. Not sure if anything have changed.

bbnnrkrq/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BBNNRKRQ w - - 0 1

This were regarded as the best position for white a couple of years ago. Not sure if anything have changed. bbnnrkrq/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BBNNRKRQ w - - 0 1