OTB Freestyle / Fischer Random / Chess 960 in the UK

[Matt George]

Hi, posting here on behalf of FRCUK (https://fischerrandomchess.org.uk), an organization a few of us set up last year with the aim of promoting Freestyle / Fischer Random / Chess 960 in the UK. You'll find short bios on the website. We've organised and sponsored a few tournaments in the last 12 months and are in the process of planning a few more. With this in mind we have put together a short survey (takes less than a minute!) which we’d be grateful if people could take and circulate. Please find it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y8SDVJZ.

Please also feel free to reply to this thread with any wider comments about Chess 960 and your views on if and how it could gain popularity in the UK.

Many thanks,
Ed, Matt, Tom and Vagelis

[Roland Kensdale]

Slight tangent. Watched a video of the players in the 'freestyle' GOAT tournament (https://youtu.be/eU_oCJUthN0?si=pAgid7Wm-HnPJ6jw), there seemed a few questions about castling (I couldn't follow all the comments), suggesting even these players were not 100% clear on every aspect of the rules concerning castling. Good they clarified before the tournament, but I would have expected the castling rules to be fully understood by players at this level before they reached the venue. I may be getting the wrong impression just from an interested discussion.

In Carlsen's decisive game in the final against Caruana, the latter could and should have castled on his first move to defend the pawn on b7, instead playing ... c6 and only castling after White had done so. I wonder if he just didn't consider the move as it is so different to standard castling. Perhaps I'm seeing Caruana as if he were someone with my limited abilities. (Video of the game with Danny King's analysis: https://youtu.be/i_ENPaOl-mI?si=WZBWGS7s_zf2CyJh).

From the first video I learned queenside castling is called 'c-side castling' (kingside castling is 'g-side castling'). I used to do that at the beach with a bucket and spade many years ago.

[Roger de Coverly]

In Carlsen's decisive game in the final against Caruana, the latter could and should have castled on his first move to defend the pawn on b7, instead playing ... c6 and only castling after White had done so.

I think this is a disadvantage of Chess 960. There appear to be positions where one or other player can immediately lose or at best have a serious disadvantage in the first handful of moves. If you really took it seriously, how difficult would it be to remember all the traps and snares in most or all of the 960?