the eiditic memory of magnus carlson

Fischer random chess is such a stupid name.
Chess masters were talking about this form of chess long before Fischer.

Why can't they just call it neo-chess or something that might actually attract attention.

Even chess960 is a lame name.

Neo-Chess 🤗

@patzering said
Fischer random chess is such a stupid name.
Chess masters were talking about this form of chess long before Fischer.

Why can't they just call it neo-chess or something that might actually attract attention.

Even chess960 is a lame name.

Neo-Chess 🤗

Chess 960 is just a description of the 960 combinations of starting positions of this variant. Seems like a good name to me.
There is more than just memory in high level chess.
Capablanca didn't study openings or much of anything in chess, he won by intuition.
Carlsen is much like Capa but does study intensively so I think if he gets in a 960 tournie he will win or be close to winning. My opinion anyway.

Here's one I discovered shortly after it came out, back when 'postal chess' was still a thing. It was something different at the time and an interesting idea.

"Transcendental Chess (TC) is a chess variant invented in 1978 by Maxwell Lawrence. Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess) is similar but has fewer starting positions.

In Transcendental Chess the beginning position of the pieces on the back row are randomly determined, with the one restriction that the bishops must be on opposite-colored squares.

There are 8294400 such positions in total. In Chess960 there are 960 possible starting positions, but that is because the king must be located between the rooks and both sides must have the same starting position. In Transcendental Chess there is no such rule. There is no castling. On the first turn each player, instead of making a move, has the option to transpose any of two pieces on their back row.

In Chess960 the back rows are mirror images, but in Transcendental Chess the setup of black and white is different 2879 out of every 2880 times.

This can create inequalities in the initial position.

One way to equalize these possible starting disadvantages is to play a couplet.
The players play two games with the starting setup, one as white and one as black. To win the couplet, a player must win at least one game and draw or win the other."

Is their something wrong with chess now?

None of us are ever going to be at the level where every game is a draw.

Our choice of openings shows our personalities.
We follow games of our chosen opening and it makes it interesting.

Chess "variants" will never be bigger than Chess.

One very simple variant would be for king to get his color.

People need to stop acting like all of us have mastered chess to the point of us needing to change the game.

When the top chess players can get a draw every time against the top computers then it will be time to change the game.

@patzering said
Is their something wrong with chess now?

None of us are ever going to be at the level where every game is a draw.

Our choice of openings shows our personalities.
We follow games of our chosen opening and it makes it interesting.

Chess "variants" will never be bigger than Chess.

I agree

@mister-moggy

I am not an expert of chess variants, but:

After reading up on 960 and shuffle, they are close to the same. The back rank of one side is set up randomly, and then the other side is set up as a mirror image so that both players have an identical back rank. There are some rules for 960 that effect the placement of the rooks, so 960 has a way to allow castling, whereas shuffle does not.

Transcendental Chess is not the same as either 960 chess or shuffle chess. With transcendental chess both sides are set up randomly and also independently of each other . ( I guess there is a 1 in 2880 chance of ending up with a mirror image setup.)

Some of the chess variants are interesting if you are looking for a change, but I agree that they are not going to ever replace traditional standard chess in popularity.