Chess960 - Chess for the 21st Century

The rules for Chess960 are simple (hear Fischer's short explanation):

There are only two rules in addition to those of standard chess:

1) How To Generate a Position

The pieces are randomly placed on the back row. There must always be:

• One rook to the left of the king, and one rook to the right of the king.
• One bishop on light coloured square, and one bishop on a dark coloured square.

The starting positions are always symmetrical. DGT has released a Chess960 clock that will generate start positions for you.
 

2) How To Castle

There is no confusion when castling in Chess960. No matter the starting position, the king and rook always go the same final squares as in regular chess. This means, irrespective of which of the 960 starting positions you are playing, O-O (for white) would find the king on g1 and the rook that was to the right of the king on f1. O-O-O would find the king on c1 and the rook that was to the left of the king on d1.

As in regular chess, you may not castle:

• on a particular wing if you have moved that wing's rook already.
• if you have moved the king already.
• if any squares the king must travel over are attacked.
• if any squares that rook and king must travel on to reach their destination are occupied by other pieces.

The castling rules (and the bishop rule) form an important link to the history of chess. It is true that you may not always want to castle, but if you need to vacate the centre, switch wings, connect your rooks etc, the option is there. The variant Chess480 was presented as an improvement over Chess960, but sports modified castling rules that often make the manoeuvre undesirable.

The video below demonstrates both a and h side castling from one of the possible start positions. The concept is the same for any other position, you only need to make space for the king and rook to get there.