A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess . Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
70-410: Chess960 ('chess nine-sixty'), also known as Fischer Random Chess , is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. It was introduced by former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening preparation and encourage creativity in play. Chess960 uses the same board and pieces as classical chess , but the starting position of
140-477: A Dutch diplomat. Van der Hoeven took the concept of shuffle chess further, potentially sharing his insights with Aaron Alexandre , evident from Alexandre's incorporation of the theory into his Encyclopédie des échecs in 1837. The earliest documented games of shuffle chess were played between Van der Hoeven and Alexandre in Mannheim in 1842, with Alexandre emerging as the victor with a score of 3-0. One of these games
210-720: A 6×6 variant, was created in 1956 expressly for computers, its simplicity meant that it was possible for the MANIAC I computer to play it, with a victory over a beginner player the first instance of a computer winning a chess-like game against human opposition. Conversely, Arimaa was developed in 2003 to be deliberately resistant to computer analysis while easy for human players, though computers were able to comprehensively surpass human players by 2015. While solving chess has not yet been achieved, some variants have been found to be simple enough to be solved though computer analysis. The 5×5 Gardner's Minichess variant has been weakly solved as
280-519: A Chess960 starting position is actually 18.2% more balanced than the standard starting position. The concept of random chess, also known as shuffle chess, was first proposed by the Dutch chess enthusiast Philip Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt (1743-1826). In his renowned treatise on chess, La Supériorité aux Échecs , published in 1792, Van Zuylen van Nijevelt articulated his disdain for the repetitive patterns often found in standard chess openings. He proposed
350-533: A basement broadcast studio. Backed by Sinquefield's largess, the club quickly grew to prominence in the United States' chess community. In 2009, the club began hosting the annual U.S. Championships and U.S. Women's Championships . The following year, it added the annual Junior Closed Championship. The success of the 2009–2010 U.S. Championships led the United States Chess Federation to name
420-562: A billionaire and libertarian activist, founded the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis . It was the first major expenditure in his efforts to boost chess in Saint Louis and the United States; by 2018, he would spend an estimated $ 50 million on chess-related philanthropy. It was reopened on July 17, 2008, as the St. Louis Chess Club , in facilities that had contained a tournament hall and
490-499: A draw, and a lengthy analysis of losing chess managed to weakly solve this as a win for white. Chess variants have been invented in various fiction. In The Chessmen of Mars author Edgar Rice Burroughs describes Jetan which depicts a war between two races of Martian. An appendix fully defines the rules of the game. More commonly specifics of fictional variants are not detailed in the original works, though several have been codified into playable games by fans. An example of this
560-557: A formal complaint to the United States Chess Federation alleging that Ramirez had twice sexually assaulted her. In February 2023, Shahade, frustrated by the responses of club and federation officials, posted her allegations to social media. Within a month, seven more women came forward to accuse Ramirez of sexually assaulting them. In March 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that club officials had known of allegations against Ramirez at least since 2015. Ramirez resigned from
630-572: A method that requires only a single standard die . (Re-roll if needed to get values in the range 1–4 or 1–5.) 960 choices can be obtained in several ways by combining polyhedral dice without re-rolling; for example 4×12×20 or 6×8×20 or 8×10×12. Shuffling marked objects (cards, pieces, pawns, dominoes , Scrabble letters) and use the permutations. For example, shuffle 14 marked cards a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h, N,N,Q,R,R,R and place them, in this random order, separated into three rows: The first card of each row determines one bishop's place. The variant has held
700-470: A number of different names. It was originally known as "Fischerandom" or "Fischerandom chess", the name given by Fischer. "Chess960" is used by FIDE in its Laws of Chess . Hans-Walter Schmitt, chairman of the Frankfurt Chess Tigers e.V. and an advocate of the variant, started a brainstorming process for creating a new name, which had to meet the requirements of leading grandmasters; specifically,
770-437: A real sport in the early 21st century. Fictional chess variants can involve fantastical or dangerous elements that cannot be implemented in real life. The Chessmen of Mars describes a form of Jetan where the pieces are human beings and captures are replaced by fights to the death between them. The Doctor Who episode " The Wedding of River Song " depicts "Live Chess", which introduces potentially lethal electric currents into
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#1732855420109840-490: A round robin. The event was won by both (There was no tiebreaker) former world (standard) chess champion Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura . The reigning FIDE world Fischer random chess champion Wesley So placed fifth out of the ten players. So lost only once, namely to Alireza Firouzja . 2021 – The playing format was once again a round robin. The event was won by Leinier Domínguez Pérez . The reigning FIDE world Fischer random chess champion Wesley So placed second out of
910-409: A row. Fischer was not pleased when the father, László, showed Fischer an old chess book that described what appeared to be a forerunner of Fischer random chess. The book was written by Izidor Gross and published in 1910. Fischer then changed the rules of his variation in order to make it different. There are games of shuffle chess recorded as early as 1852 but Fischer is generally credited with fixing
980-617: A score of 14–10. 2018 – From September 11 to 14, 2018, the Saint Louis Chess Club held a Chess960 event, but they did not yet call their event 'Chess 9LX'. (They started next year.) The playing format consisted of individual matches, each pair of players facing the same five different starting positions, with 6 rapid games (counting 2 points each) and 14 blitz games (counting 1 point each). Players and scores: 2019 – The playing format once again consisted of individual matches. Players and scores: 2020 – The playing format changed to
1050-536: A slightly modified form became known as shatranj . Modifications made to this game in Europe resulted in the modern game. Courier chess was a popular variant in medieval Europe, which had a significant impact on the "main" variant's development. Other games in the chess family, such as shogi (Japan), xiangqi (China), and ouk chatran (Cambodian) are also developments from chaturanga made in other regions. These related games are considered chess variants , though
1120-518: A solution to the repetitive nature of traditional openings but also paved the way for the exploration of chess variants that deviate from the conventional starting position. His quote within La Supériorité aux Échecs emphasizes the core principle behind random chess, stating, "This produces a huge number of different situations, so that no one can study them beforehand," reflecting his desire to introduce an element of unpredictability and originality into
1190-466: A starting point. In most cases the creators are attempting to create new games of interest to chess enthusiasts or a wider audience. Variants normally have the same public domain status as chess, though a few (such as Knightmare Chess ) are proprietary, and the materials for play are released as commercial products. The variations from chess may be done to address a perceived issue with the standard game. For example, Fischer random chess , which randomises
1260-402: A tournament with seven players from Amsterdam, along with the 74-year-old Van der Hoeven, was organized. Notable participants included Maarten van 't Kruijs (Philidor), J. Seligmann (Philidor), H. Kloos (La Bourdonnais), M.M. Coopman, and F.G. Hijmans / S. Heijmans, supplemented by Mohr and J. van Praag. Van ’t Kruijs emerged as the winner of the tournament, reinforcing the growing sentiment that
1330-433: A wider range of board games, have created chess variants. These include Robert Abbott ( Baroque chess ) and Andy Looney ( Martian chess ). While chess, shogi , and xiangqi have professional circuits as well as many organised tournaments for amateurs, play of chess variants is predominately on a casual basis. A few variants have had significant tournaments. Several Gliński's hexagonal chess tournaments were played at
1400-504: Is Tri-Dimensional Chess from Star Trek . On-screen play was not conducted to any specific rules, but a comprehensive rulebook has been since developed. Another well known example of fictional chess-like game are the Star Wars holochess, or dejarik . Chess boxing , a hybrid sport of chess and boxing , was depicted in Froid Équateur , a 1992 comic by Enki Bilal and was developed into
1470-491: Is able to play Crazyhouse , King-of-the-hill , Three-check chess , Atomic chess , Horde chess , and Racing Kings . The AI included in Zillions of Games is able to play almost any variant correctly programmed within it to a reasonable standard. Some variants, such as 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel , are implausible or even impossible to play physically and exist primarily as video games . Play in most chess variants
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#17328554201091540-637: Is preserved in Sissa, the Netherlands' first long-standing chess journal, demonstrating an initial position with two advanced pawns on each side. A later game played by Van der Hoeven was against Baron von der Lasa (1818-1899), adhering more closely to the contemporary rules of random chess, except for the monochromatic bishop pairs. In 1851, Van der Hoeven visited Willem Verbeek, the editor-in-chief of Sissa. Verbeek and Hancock, Verbeek's chess companion in Amsterdam during
1610-581: Is sufficiently similar to chess that games can be recorded with algebraic notation , although additions to this are often required. For example, the third dimension in Millennium 3D Chess means that move notation needs to include the level number, as well as the rank and file—N2g3 means a knight move to the g3 square on the second level. When fairy chess pieces are used, notation requires assigning letters for those pieces. Various publications have been written regarding chess variants. Variant Chess magazine
1680-562: Is today. Note: None of the Mainz championships were recognized by FIDE . Furthermore, they were all played with rapid time controls. In 2005, chess program The Baron played two Fischer random chess games against Chess960 World Champion Peter Svidler , who won 1½–½. The chess program Shredder , developed by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen of Germany, played two games against Zoltán Almási from Hungary, where Shredder won 2–0. TCEC has held TCEC FRC since 2019 where Stockfish has won every edition except
1750-833: Is used more broadly across writings about chess variants to describe chess pieces with movement rules other than those of the standard chess pieces. Forms of standardised notation have been devised to systematically describe the movement of these. A distinguishing feature of several chess variants is the presence of one or more fairy pieces. Physical models of common fairy pieces are sold by major chess set suppliers. Several chess masters have developed variants, such as Chess960 by Bobby Fischer , Capablanca Chess by José Raúl Capablanca , and Seirawan chess by Yasser Seirawan . Individuals notable for creating multiple chess variants include V. R. Parton (best known for Alice chess ), Ralph Betza , Philip M. Cohen and George R. Dekle Sr. Some board game designers , notable for works across
1820-524: The 1850s, delved into shuffle chess, with their initial findings documented in the pages of the Sissa journal. Van der Hoeven's modifications to the original concept of random chess were published in Alexandre's Encyclopédie in 1837 and later republished in Sissa by an individual known as T. Scheidius. This variant began to be referred to as "schaakspel, naar de wijze van jhr. Van der Hoeven" or "schaakspel à la Van der Hoeven." Following Van der Hoeven's visit,
1890-483: The 2021 edition which was won by Komodo . From February 9 to 13, 2018, a Chess960 match between former classical World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and the unofficial Fischer random chess world champion Hikaru Nakamura was held in Høvikodden , Norway. The match consisted of 8 rapid and 8 blitz games, with the rapid games counting double. Each position was used in two games, with colors reversed. Carlsen prevailed with
1960-479: The International Chess Federation recognizes a new variety of chess, so this was a decision that required to be carefully thought out. But we believe that Fischer Random is a positive innovation: It injects new energies and enthusiasm into our game, but at the same time it doesn't mean a rupture with our classical chess and its tradition. It is probably for this reason that Fischer Random chess has won
2030-674: The STLCC the 2010 Chess Club of the Year. The USCF also recognized STLCC Executive Director Tony Rich as Organizer of the Year for both years. In August 2010, Sinquefield provided seed funding to move the World Chess Hall of Fame to St. Louis, citing the Chess Club's presence and reputation. In 2013, Sinquefield and the club launched the Sinquefield Cup , a super-GM tournament consisting of many of
2100-602: The Sissa Chess Society received an invitation from the Philidor Chess Society in Amsterdam, in collaboration with Van der Hoeven, to organize a shuffle chess tournament. The aim was to promote the dissemination and popularity of the chess variant attributed to Van der Hoeven. Originally intended as a tournament among the eight prize winners of the 1851 Philidor-organized event, logistical challenges led to invitations being extended to other chess societies. Ultimately,
2170-412: The black king is placed on f8.) Pawns are placed on the players' second ranks as in classical chess. After setup, the game is played the same as classical chess in all respects, with the exception of castling from the different possible starting positions for king and rooks. There are 4 × 4 × 6 × 10 × 1 = 4 × 4 × 15 × 4 × 1 = 960 legal starting positions: Usually, the players accept the conditions of
Chess960 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2240-503: The club's board of directors released a statement in which they said the club "should have done more to address the allegations made by those who bravely came forward with information about his inexcusable behavior". They also said the club had hired a legal team led by Catherine Hanaway "to review all its guidelines, practices and procedures when it comes to ensuring the safety and security of everyone participating in chess". After this statement, Chess.com resumed its support and coverage of
2310-1304: The club's tournaments, while Lichess did not. The STLCC has a Grandmaster -in-Residence who provides lectures, lessons and camps for the community. The titled players who have held the position are (in order of first residency): Ben Finegold , Yasser Seirawan , Alejandro Ramírez , Varuzhan Akobian , Jennifer Shahade , Ronen Har-Zvi , Irina Krush , Joshua Friedel , Anna Sharevich , Robert Hungaski , Bryan Smith , Maurice Ashley , Aviv Friedman , Tatev Abrahamyan , Mac Molner , Eric Hansen , Vita Kryvoruchko , Kateřina Němcová , Robin van Kampen , Cristian Chirilă , Eric Rosen , Denes Boros , Elshan Moradiabadi , Sabina Foisor , Vitaly Neimer , Atanas Kolev , Yaroslav Zherebukh , Mauricio Flores Ríos , Jesse Kraai , Vladimir Georgiev , Pepe Cuenca , Aman Hambleton , Aleksandr Lenderman , Tiberiu Georgescu , Steven Zierk , Dorsa Derakhshani , Joel Benjamin , Dariusz Swiercz , Mircea Pârligras , Lázaro Bruzón , Yuniesky Quesada , Alex Yermolinsky , Alexander Shabalov , Romain Édouard , Thalia Cervantes , Illia Nyzhnyk , Evgenij Miroshnichenko , Cemil Can Ali Marandi , Igor Novikov , Joshua Sheng , Benjamin Bok , Victor Mikhalevski , Melikset Khachiyan , and Akshat Chandra . Parligras
2380-449: The club. In August 2023, Shahade sued the club and the U.S. federation, alleging that they had mishandled the allegations and tried to silence her. Officials denied the allegations. Leading chess platforms Chess.com and Lichess announced that they would no longer support the St. Louis club nor cover its tournaments because of how the club had handled the allegations. Two months later,
2450-422: The colors of bishops alongside king placement between the rooks and defining the castling process. In a later radio interview, Fischer explained his reasoning for proposing a revision of shuffle chess, rather than a game with new pieces (and a larger board), as the “new chess“: I love chess, and I didn't invent Fischerandom chess to destroy chess. I invented Fischerandom chess to keep chess going. Because I consider
2520-415: The different possible initial positions of king and rook. After castling, the final positions of king and rook are the same as in classical chess, namely: Castling prerequisites are the same as in classical chess, namely: FIDE's recommended procedure for castling unambiguously is first to move the king outside the playing area next to its final square, then to move the rook to its final square, then to move
2590-729: The equipment of regular chess. Most variants have a similar public-domain status as their parent game, but some have been made into commercial proprietary games. Just as in traditional chess, chess variants can be played over the board, by correspondence , or by computer . Some internet chess servers facilitate the play of some variants in addition to orthodox chess. In the context of chess problems , chess variants are called heterodox chess or fairy chess . Fairy chess variants tend to be created for problem composition rather than actual play. There are thousands of known chess variants (see list of chess variants ). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants catalogues around two thousand, with
2660-568: The favor of the chess community, including the top players and the world champion himself. FIDE couldn't be oblivious to that: It was time to embrace and incorporate this modality of chess. On August 19, 2022, the second world championship was announced for later in 2022, in Iceland. This is exactly half a century after the World Chess Championship 1972 held in Iceland between Fischer and Boris Spassky . On October 30, Hikaru Nakamura played
2730-551: The finals against Ian Nepomniachtchi , who had earlier knocked out Magnus Carlsen . Nakamura won in the armageddon after drawing the match 2–2. Chess variant "International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be considered variants of each other. Chess developed from chaturanga , from which other members of this family, such as ouk chatrang , shatranj , Tamerlane chess , shogi , and xiangqi also evolved. Many chess variants are designed to be played with
2800-518: The first move. For example, in some Chess960 starting positions (see diagram), White can attack an unprotected black pawn on the first move, whereas in classical chess it takes two moves for White to attack, and there are no unprotected pawns. It has been argued that two games should be played from each starting position, with players alternating colors, since the advantage offered to White in some initial positions may be greater than in classical chess. However, Sesse (which used Stockfish 9 ) evaluated
2870-477: The first world championship in Fischer random chess officially recognized by FIDE was announced. It ended on November 2, 2019. In the finals, Wesley So defeated the former and four-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen 13½–2½ (4 wins, 0 losses, 2 draws) to become the inaugural world Fischer random chess champion. In the announcement, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich commented: It is an unprecedented move that
Chess960 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2940-538: The game by retaining bishops of opposite colors for each player and the right to castle for both sides". The result is 960 unique possible starting positions. In 2008, FIDE added Chess960 to an appendix of the Laws of Chess. The first world championship officially sanctioned by FIDE, the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019 , brought additional prominence to the variant. It
3010-463: The game of chess. The legacy of Van Zuylen van Nijevelt's contributions to the evolution of chess remains significant, with his early insights serving as a cornerstone for the development of various randomized chess variants, including Chess960. The pioneering work of Van Zuylen van Nijevelt found continued development through the efforts of his nephew, the Jonkheer Elias van der Hoeven (1778-1854),
3080-498: The game on chess.com and lichess. Several internet chess servers facilitate live play of popular variants, including Chess.com , Lichess , and the Free Internet Chess Server . The software packages Zillions of Games and Fairy-Max have been programmed to support many chess variants. Some chess engines are also able to play a handful of variants, for instance the version of Stockfish implemented on Lichess
3150-491: The game. Bibliography Saint Louis Chess Club The Saint Louis Chess Club (previously, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis ) is a chess club in the Central West End in St. Louis , Missouri , United States. It was founded in 2008 by billionaire Rex Sinquefeld as part of an effort to improve U.S. chess and turn St. Louis into an international chess center. The club's building sits across
3220-406: The height of the variant's popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. Chess960 has also been the subject of tournaments , including in 2018 an "unofficial world championship" between reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and fellow high-ranking Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura . Likewise Crazyhouse has seen prize-funded unofficial world championship tournaments with top grandmasters and experts of
3290-552: The idea of randomizing the starting positions of the main pieces to create a vast array of unique situations, eliminating the possibility of pre-game memorization or extensive opening theory. Van Zuylen van Nijevelt's book, with its full title La Supériorité aux Échecs mise à la portée de tout le monde, et particulièrement des dames qui aiment cet amusement ("Superiority in Chess brought into the reach of all, and particularly of ladies who love that amusement"), gained significant popularity and
3360-591: The interim are held at 308 N Euclid Ave, the old Kingside Diner space, the basement of The Chase Park Plaza Hotel , Il Monastero at Saint Louis University , or the World Chess Hall of Fame . In 2020, club officials received allegations of sexual assaults by Alejandro Ramirez , a resident grandmaster who was the club's highest-paid employee for at least two years. Officials said they launched no formal investigation but "stopped engaging Ramirez in any capacity where he would come into contact with minors". In 2022, two-time women's national champion Jennifer Shahade filed
3430-589: The king to its final square. Another recommendation is to verbally announce the intent to castle before doing so. The study of openings in Chess960 is in its infancy, but fundamental opening principles still apply, including: protect the king, control the central squares (directly or indirectly), and develop rapidly, starting with the less valuable pieces. Unprotected pawns may also need to be dealt with quickly. Many starting positions have unprotected pawns, and some starting positions have up to two that can be attacked on
3500-492: The majority of variants are, expressly, modifications of chess. The basic rules of chess were not standardized until the 19th century, and the history of chess before this involves many variants, with the most popular modifications spreading and eventually forming the modern game. While some regional variants have historical origins comparable to or even older than chess, the majority of variants are express attempts by individuals or small groups to create new games with chess as
3570-543: The name Chess960 for the variant in preference to Fischer random chess. Chess960 tournaments hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club since 2019 are branded as Chess 9LX, where the name is a combination of the Arabic numeral 9 and the Roman numerals LX (60). As in classical chess, each player may castle once per game, moving both the king and a rook in a single move; however, the castling rules were reinterpreted in Chess960 to support
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#17328554201093640-458: The new name and its parts: The effort culminated in the name choice "Chess960" – derived from the number of different possible starting positions. Fischer never publicly expressed an opinion on the name "Chess960". Reinhard Scharnagl, another proponent of the variant, advocated the term "FullChess". Today he uses FullChess, however, to refer to variants which consistently embed classical chess (e.g. Chess960 and similar variants). He recommends
3710-402: The old chess is dying, it really is dead. A lot of people come up with other rules of chess-type games, with 10×8 boards, new pieces , and all kinds of things. I'm really not interested in that. I want to keep the old chess flavor. I want to keep the old chess game. But just making a change so the starting positions are mixed, so it's not degenerated down to memorization and prearrangement like it
3780-451: The organizer to generate the starting position with software. If the software is not available or the players do not accept it, there are many ways to generate a random starting position with equal probability. This requires choosing a number randomly between 0 and 959 inclusive; this number is then used as an index to the Fischer random chess numbering scheme . In 1998, Ingo Althöfer proposed
3850-409: The pieces on the players' home ranks is randomized, following certain rules. The random setup makes gaining an advantage through the memorization of openings unfeasible. Players instead must rely more on their skill and creativity. Randomizing the main pieces had long been known as shuffle chess , but Fischer introduced new rules for the initial random setup, "preserving the dynamic nature of
3920-608: The players must create every move originally. From the first move, both players must devise original strategies and cannot use well-established patterns. Fischer believed that eliminating memorized book moves would level the playing field. During summer 1993, Bobby Fischer visited László Polgár and his family in Hungary. All of the Polgar sisters ( Judit Polgár , Susan Polgar , and Sofia Polgar ) played many games of Fischer random chess with Fischer. At one point Sofia beat Fischer three games in
3990-522: The preface noting that—since creating a chess variant is relatively trivial—many were considered insufficiently notable for inclusion. The origins of the chess family of games can be traced to the game of chaturanga during the time of the Gupta Empire in India. Over time, as the game spread geographically, modified versions of the rules became popular in different regions. In Sassanid Persia ,
4060-483: The public on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fischer's goal was to eliminate what he considered the complete dominance of openings preparation in classical chess, replacing it with creativity and talent. In a situation where the starting position was random it would be impossible to fix every move of the game. Since the "opening book" for 960 possible opening systems would be too difficult to devote to memory,
4130-517: The removal of opening theory allows true chess talent to shine. Fischer's modification "imposes certain restrictions, arguably an improvement on the anarchy of the fully randomized game in which one player is almost certain to start at an advantage". Fischer started to develop his new version of chess after the 1992 return match with Boris Spassky . The result was the formulation of the rules of Fischer random chess in September 1993, introduced formally to
4200-466: The second edition of the encyclopedia was completed and published by John Beasley under the title The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. A recent overview of historical and some modern variants was published under the title of A World of Chess in 2017. The Chess Variant Pages website includes a constantly expanding catalogue of variants. A few chess variants have been the subject of significant computational analysis. Los Alamos chess ,
4270-411: The starting positions to be between 0.00 and 0.57, with an average of 0.18 advantage for White. BBNNRKRQ (SP 80) was the least balanced position with 0.57 advantage for White, while 27 different starting positions evaluate as equal, or 0.00 advantage for White or Black, ex. BBRNNQKR (SP 432). The standard chess starting position RNBQKBNR (SP 518) was evaluated at 0.22 advantage for White. Hence, on average,
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#17328554201094340-457: The starting positions, was invented by Bobby Fischer to combat what he perceived to be the detrimental dominance of opening preparation in chess. Several variants introduce complications to the standard game, providing an additional challenge for experienced players, for example in Kriegspiel , where players cannot see the pieces of their opponent. The table below details some, but not all, of
4410-507: The street from the World Chess Hall of Fame . The club hosts the annual Sinquefield Cup tournament, the only U.S. stop on the Grand Chess Tour . Founded at the club in 2013, it is one of the world's strongest tournaments as measured by its competitors' world rankings . The club drew national attention in 2023 when officials were accused of concealing the alleged sexual assaults of a grandmaster employee. In 2007, Rex Sinquefield ,
4480-460: The ten players, tied with Sam Shankland and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave . So lost only twice, namely to Leinier Domínguez Pérez and Sam Shankland. 2022 – The playing format was once again a round robin. The event was won by Fabiano Caruana who defeated Alireza Firouzja in armageddon. Firouzja had previously placed tenth out of ten (last place) in the 2020 tournament. The reigning FIDE world Fischer random chess champion Wesley So placed fifth out of
4550-413: The ten players. So lost only thrice, namely to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , Alireza Firouzja (again) and Caruana. 2023 – The playing format was a round robin with 10 players. Sam Sevian won with 7/9. Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Sam Shankland got 6/9. Fabiano Caruana scored 5.5/9, Hikaru Nakamura 4/9, Jeffrey Xiong 3.5/9, Garry Kasparov 3/9, Leinier Dominguez 2.5/9 and Ray Robson 1.5/9 . On April 20, 2019,
4620-433: The ways in which variants can differ from the orthodox game: Variants can themselves be developed into further sub-variants, for example Horde chess is a variation upon Dunsany's Chess. Some variations are created for the purpose of composing interesting puzzles , rather than being intended for full games. This field of composition is known as fairy chess . Fairy chess gave rise to the term " fairy chess piece " which
4690-399: The world's strongest grandmasters. In 2014, the tournament was the strongest in history (by rating), with an average rating of 2802. The STLCC holds yearly tournaments in chess960 that they trademark as Chess 9LX . On September 19, 2022, all Club operations temporarily moved to the adjacent space that housed the original incarnation of the chess-themed Kingside Diner. All tournaments in
4760-513: Was published from 1990 to 2010, being an official publication of the British Chess Variants Society from 1997. This outlined and introduced multiple variants, as well as containing in-depth analyses. A leading figure in the field was David Pritchard , who authored several books on the topic. Most significantly, he compiled an encyclopedia of variants which outlined thousands of different games. Following Pritchard's death in 2005,
4830-466: Was reprinted several times. Its influence extended beyond the Dutch-speaking world, as it was subsequently translated into multiple languages, spreading the idea of randomizing the initial positions of chess pieces to a wider audience. This early conception of random chess by Van Zuylen van Nijevelt laid the foundation for Chess960. Van Zuylen van Nijevelt's innovative approach to chess not only offered
4900-423: Was won by Wesley So . In 2022 , Hikaru Nakamura became the new champion. Before the game, a starting position is randomly determined and set up, subject to certain requirements. White's pieces (not pawns) are placed randomly on the first rank , following two rules: Black 's pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to White's pieces. (For example, if the white king is randomly determined to start on f1, then
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