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8 <h1>Fischer Random Chess (Chess960)</h1>
10 <table cellpadding="20">
12 <td><img src="FRC.png"></td>
15 <h3>Initial setup</h3>
17 <p>There is no fixed setup; the back-rank pieces are
18 randomly shuffled with certain restrictions. Black's setup
19 is the mirror image of white's, though. Both sides
27 a2-j2, a7-j7: Pawns</p>
29 <p>The Bishops must start on different colors. The King
30 must start between the Rooks.</p>
35 <table cellpadding="5" border="1">
43 <td>Moves (<a href="Betza.html">Betza notation</a>)</td>
57 <td>Can castle with Rook, moving 3 steps towards it</td>
117 <td>Promotes to Q, R, B, or N on reaching last rank</td>
121 <h3>Pawn peculiarities</h3>
124 <li>Pawns capture differently from how they move (straight
125 move, diagonal capture).</li>
127 <li>Pawns can move two squares ahead from their initial
128 position, provided they are not blocked.</li>
130 <li>On the move immediately after such a double push, they can
131 be captured en passant by another Pawn, as if they had only
132 moved 1 square ahead.</li>
134 <li>Pawns promote to another (non-royal) piece of choice when
135 they reach last rank.</li>
140 <p>A King that has not moved before can move to the c1/c8 or
141 g1/g8 in the direction of a Rook that has not moved before, in
142 which case that Rook is moved to the square on the other side
143 next to the King. This is only allowed if all squares traveled
144 through by King and Rook are empty (after their removal), when
145 the King is not in check on the square it came from, and would
146 not be in check on any of the squares it skipped over.</p>
148 <h3>General rules</h3>
151 <li>It is not allowed to expose your King to check.</li>
153 <li>The game is won by checkmating the opponent's King.</li>
155 <li>Stalemate (no legal moves, but not in check) is a
159 <h3>XBoard interface issues</h3>
161 <p>You can use the New Shuffle dialog to control the
162 randomization of the initial position.</p>
164 <h3>Differences with FIDE</h3>
166 <p>The start position is not fixed, but randomly picked. Castling
167 is generalized to allow it with non-standard placement of King
170 <h3>Strategy issues</h3>
172 <p>It is not possible to force checkmate on a bare King with just
173 a single Bishop or Knight (in addition to your own King). Two
174 Knights cannot do that either.</p>
176 <p>Bishops are confined to squares of a single color. Having
177 Bishops on both colors compensates this weakness, and is worth an
178 extra 0.5 on top of their added value.</p>
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