There are countless chess variants, some enjoying more popularity than others, but none have gotten as much recent attention as the brainchild of Bobby Fischer: Fischer Random Chess, also known as Chess 960 or FRC.
A high profile match took place last year in Oslo between Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen, jumpstarting a renewed interest in Fischer Random. Since then, the Saint Louis Chess Club has hosted the “Champions Showdown,” an event featuring four separate Fischer Random matches between elite players, one of whom has (for two years running) been Garry Kasparov. This really expanded the audience for Fischer Random, and I can only see its popularity rising in the upcoming years.
For those unfamiliar with the rules of Fischer Random, it basically has the same rules as standard chess, but the starting position of all the pieces are shuffled. Unlike Shuffle Chess, however, there are a couple of requirements: The bishops have to be of opposite color, and the king has to be placed in between the two rooks in order to enable castling. This preserves some of the dynamism that chess has, while also leaving plenty of room for creativity.
I got the opportunity to play in the 2018 Fischer Random Championships in Reykjavik, and just last September I worked as a journalist for the latest Champions Showdown. This gave me to chance to gain some experience with the variant, both as a player and as an observer of people who actually know what they are doing.
Many of the same qualities that make up a great chess player are the same ones that are required in Fischer Random. There are some specific ones, however, that I think are especially critical:
- Strong Sense of Danger. Unlike normal chess, you are on your own from move one. This means you have to be particularly aware of what your weaknesses are, which pieces are bad, and when you should castle. Letting your guard down at any moment can be fatal.
- A Practical Approach. The perfect is the enemy of the good. This is especially true in Fischer Random. Kasparov often got great positions in his match against Caruana in St. Louis, but he burned all his time trying to figure it out all the intricacies, and ended up throwing away many of his advantages. It is imperative you give up the idea of finding the “perfect” continuation, and simply try to harmonize your pieces properly.
- Flexibility. While it is quite common for a standard pawn structure to arise from a random starting position, trying to force one is generally a bad idea. Sometimes it is best to play symmetrically, while other times starting with an early b3 or g4 makes sense. The best Fischer Random players allow the position of the pieces dictate how they open the game, not their personal preferences in standard chess openings.
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