Fischer Random is definitely getting much more attention nowadays, especially now that the first official Fischer Random World Championship is taking place these days, it is a clear sign that 960 is on the rise!
Im extremely happy about it, because i have always loved and enjoyed 960 a lot. It is an unexplored territory and you can drop all the memorized opening lines and play freely, as if you are travelling without any baggage. Therefore it feels light and zen to me, all you need to take with you on this journey is your understanding of chess such as opening principles & endgame technique, strategic play, calculation skills and your feelings about where pieces belong. Despite what many say, for me 960 is as close to as purest form of chess, even though some of the starting positions might offer white significant advantage.
So lets take look at this beautiful game and try to find out how to approach to it together. In this article series, i ll share some of the games i ve played during Open Qualifier of Fischer Random WC and commentate about my thought process, which will include general approach and concrete lines.
My goal is to gain more awareness about the content and direction of my thought process during certain positions and draw a deduction about general ideas, which should lead to a deeper understanding of the game.
I hope this series of articles will be inspirational to you and provide some insights. Looking forward to get inspired by your thoughts, and comments as well!
Before starting examining my favourite game, i d like to share some of my observations on 960 in general:
1. There might not be an opening book of 960 yet, but opening principles still apply! This means the first move is very crucial because:
1.a Every starting position requires unique approach, so you have to already think how do you want your set-up to be, where pieces should go, already before the very first move!
1.b Some starting positions have their weak-spots like undefended pawns or even the possibility of smothered mate in just a few moves. (Even the scenarios losing exchange in 2nd move is possible like when Bishop is on b1 and Black has Rook on g8, Knight on h8. 1.c4 e5 2.Bh7 x 3.Bg8)
1.c you have to think holistic about your piece developement because unlike the standard chess, it is very easy to have badly placed knight, bishop or queen after couple of moves and becomes impossible to develop. Developing a piece might get on the way of developement of other piece. Pieces can get stuck very easily after 1-2 moves. (For example: white has bishops on a1 and b1, knight on c1. By playing 1.Nb3 you would develop your knight, but give your bishop on a1 a hard time for developement. In standard chess, this is never the case on first move. Depending on starting position, the case of pieces getting stuck might have much more sophisticated forms)
2. After a succesful opening stage by both sides, many of the positions tend to look like familiar middlegame positions from the standard chess. There, your understanding of pawn structures, middlegame plans, correct evaluation and assesment of position come in handy.
In standard chess, once you have a solid opening repertoire, reaching middlegame becomes usually natural and a take-for-granted thing, because you can switch to auto-pilot and play your opening, which you have played tousand times.
In 960, you need to put extra effort already in the opening to reach those normal looking positions and i believe that ability to reach normal looking positions or end-up with a harmonious piece developement usually depends on how deep your understanding on opening principles are. From elemantary principles like fighting for center to more advanced understanding of piece placement and a feeling for squares, where pieces should go or where they might be more useful later and exploit their full potential.
3. "In order to improve your game you must study the endgame before everything else; for, whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame" Jose Raul Capablanca
Even though we do lack an opening theory in 960 to study as intensively as we can on standard chess, studying endgames are extremely important and relevant for 960. Because you will still have usual looking endgames in your games, such as rook endgames etc. Your endgame knowledge and understanding will effect the way you asses your middlegames, since it gives you better ability to decide when to and how to do a transition into endgame, or to create/avoid weaknesses. Even openings are still relevant for the endgame stage, since the formation of pawn structure always requires taking endgame stage into account.
So lets start with games. Im not going to analyse them with engine, since firstly it makes me lazy to think, secondly, during the games no one is going to tell you if you are winning or not..Also, my primary aim is to examine my thought process during the game and my feelings about those positions. So my analysis is basically mainly about what i have thought during the game and how i assesed positions while playing it, if things go well. If things go wrong, then i might add some retrospective comments as well. Lets go!
Time control was 10+2
In this game, i feel like that i made a good use of the points i have named in 1. , 1.a., 1.b. and especially 1.c. (for example paying attention to the queen placement and it could might be little tight for my queen, if 1.Nf3 is played while pawn is still on f2.) and it already gave me advantage in the opening so that i went into middlegame with material up.
Notice also, how the position after couple of moves started to look like 1.e4 c5. 2.b3 Sicilian lines from the standard chess. So having some kind of experience and ideas in those sicilian side variants could be quite useful in a game like this.
Another point that makes me happy about that game is that i did not mess it up like i did so many times once i had material advantage. Important factor that has enabled me to not to let the win slip was probably my efforts on staying alert to any possible dangers, even though there was probably no real danger or no huge threats in this particular game. I find it very crucial to stay alert until the very last minute and to be aware of any tactical complications, counterplays opponent can create. Because there have been games, i let the win slip because i stopped paid attention to possible dangers only for a second and it was enough to lose my advantage. Staying focused all the time can have huge impact on the outcome of the game, no matter how big your advantage was, how well you played in the most part of the game. I ll show those games in the following articles.
Hope you enjoyed reading it! Feel free to give feedback or share your own fischer random games with your thoughts during/after the games and lets examine thought process together. See you soon!
To be continued..