Does FischerRandom / Chess960 ever have a chance of supplanting regular chess?
Fischer was a pioneer in realizing that standard chess was becoming too overstudied and theory oriented and that Fischer Random would bring the dawn of a new era in Chess. I can only speculate that many players from the club level all the way up to the 2800+ super GM’s wish to see a day where Chess960 becomes the norm for chess tournaments. One can’t deny that the amount of high profile players backing the game is certainly adding serious legitimacy to the game (despite 960 still making up less than 1% of tournaments). More recentely, the highly publicized Kings vs Queens chess tournament in St. Louis gave the game serious publicity as half the game was played in FischerRandom style. The tournament exhibited some of the strongest levels of players in the world playing Chess960, including a fantastic showing by GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (who is a huge advocate of FischerRandom) and GM Hikaru Nakamura (who won or drew every single game he played).
“I like to play Chess960. I get bored from playing openings like the Slav over and over again. I think that in about 15 or 20 years we will only be playing Chess960.” – GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2750 FIDE)
Alexandra Kostneiuk on how she feels about Fischer Random
Chess journalist Macauley Peterson did a Podcast last month where he interviewed Alexandra Kosteniuk, (who’s the 2008 Chess 960 women’s world champion) and got the chance to ask her how she felt about Chess960, specifically if she thinks the game ever has a chance of supplanting classical chess. She had the following to say:
Chess 960 I think, it shows you’re form very well … your current condition, because in a classical chess game you have more time to think; you have these opening lines that are known or have been analyzed by you at home and use can use it and kind of escape sometimes [inaudible] but in FisherRandom chess you don’t really control … you dont have this kind of control over the situation. It’s still … interesting, but its more like fun, you know. It’s not something that you’re going to play and use in your future carreer. There are [a] few tournaments and I enjoy it very much but still …
Maccauly Peterson: You dont see chess 960, for example, going to become more established, and more widely played among grandmasters
KOS: I don’t think so. I mean, It’s interesting, it’s fun. You don’t have all these theoretical lines, but still, it’s not considered to be serious, and I dont think it will substitute for the classical chess.
Listen to the rest of the interview: (original link)
Standard Chess is here to stay … for now
While professionally sponsored Chess960 tournaments have become more somewhat more common in recent years, most Grandmasters are quite convinced that classical chess will remain the dominant form of chess at he highest levels for the indefinite future. However, I do believe that Chess960 does have a good chance of becoming more common as complimentary to standard chess in future tournaments.
Follow William for fresh daily updates: Follow @OnlineChessLessWilliam Stewart is a National Master. He specializes in Online Chess Coaching and maintains a daily updated Chess Blog
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