Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 ('chess nine-sixty'), is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess championBobby Fischer.[1] Fischer announced this variation on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[2][3][4] Fischer random chess employs the same board and pieces as classical chess, but the starting position of the pieces on the players' home ranks is randomized, following certain rules. The random setup makes gaining an advantage through the memorization of openingsimpracticable; players instead must rely more on their skill and creativity over the board.
Randomizing the main pieces had long been known as shuffle chess, but Fischer random chess introduces new rules for the initial random setup, "preserving the dynamic nature of the game by retaining bishops of opposite colors for each player and the right to castle for both sides".[5] The result is 960 unique possible starting positions.
^"It was the world chess champion Robert James Fischer who, in 1996, formulated precise rules for randomized chess ... . Though still not so well-known, this invention of Bobby Fischer is already raising reasonable hopes among experts that chess will remain a mass game for the foreseeable future." (Gligorić 2002:5). "Despite his extremely long absence from competition, he [Fischer] won it [the 1992 return match with Spassky] with a good score of 10–5 in decisive games. It was then that Fischer began to think of reforming the game. The result of his hard work over several years is Fischerandom Chess—and plans for exhibition matches of a new kind..." (Gligorić 2002:8).
^Cite error: The named reference FideLawsOfChess was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^In 2008 FIDE added Chess960 rules to an appendix of the Handbook.[6] This section is now classified under "Guidelines",[7] indicating that the rules presented do not have the weight of FIDE law.