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Castling in Chess 960. New castling rules for Fischer Random Chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Gene Milener wrote on Wed, Feb 22, 2006 06:05 PM UTC:

[1]  The historical origin of the chess castling rule is interesting, but
it is irrelevant to chess960/FRC.  Chess960 is about engineering a better
implementation of the basic game of chess.  If historical adherence is
the
goal, then chess960 is ruled out entirely.

[2]  The problem with the proposed rule, that castling kings move only 2
squares, is that in chess960 it would lead to an even higher draw rate
than we suffer in traditional 'chess1'.

Opposite wing castling is far too infrequent in chess1 (8% of all games).


Yet games with opposite wing castling have a lower draw rate.  Chess960
should be engineered to increase the rate of opposite wing castling, not
reduce it.

In my new book 'Play Strong Chess by Examining Chess960', I discuss all
this, plus a modification to the chess960 castling rule that would
slightly increase the rate of opposite wing castling.  (Search Amazon.com
or Amazon.co.uk etc for 'chess960', or visit http://CastleLong.com/).

Thank you.