11 November 2008

Lesson in Chess960 Opening Patterns

My second game of chess960 was even shorter than the first (see Chess960? I'm Hooked!). From the diagrammed start position, my opponent blundered a Pawn on the 5th move and then let his clock run out.


Start Position 900

Here's the game, again courtesy of SchemingMind.com:

[Event "Chess960"]
[Site "SchemingMind.com"]
[Date "2008.09.26"]
[Round "-"]
[White "honky"]
[Black "bemweeks"]
[Result "0-1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "rbbkqrnn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RBBKQRNN w KQkq - 0 1"]

1.d4 d5 2.c3 Nf6 3.f3 c5 4.Qd2 Qc6 5.Nh3 Bxh2 0-1

What did I learn from this game? That the opening patterns we learn playing traditional chess -- developing the Knights to c3/f3 (c6/f6), the choice between long diagonal or fianchetto for the Bishops, the weakness of f2/f7 -- are supplanted by other patterns in chess960. Not paying attention to these new patterns can easily result in blunders like losing a Pawn on the 5th move.

2 comments:

Tom Chivers said...

I've been playing Chess960 at chesscube.com using the handle TomChivers. It's normal speed rather than correspondence but if you'd like a game do challenge me there. Btw, the site is free.

Mark Weeks said...

Thanks for the tip, Tom - I'll definitely check it out. - Mark