6 <h1>Fischer Random Chess (Chess960)</h1>
7 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td>
10 <h3>Initial setup</h3>
12 There is no fixed setup;
13 the back-rank pieces are randomly shuffled with certain restrictions.
14 Black's setup is the mirror image of white's, though.
29 The Bishops must start on different colors.
30 The King must start between the Rooks.
33 <table cellpadding="5" border="1"><tr><td>
40 Moves (<a href="Betza.html">Betza notation</a>)
52 Can castle with Rook, moving 3 steps towards it
102 Promotes to Q, R, B, or N on reaching last rank
104 <h3>Pawn peculiarities</h3>
106 <li>Pawns capture differently from how they move (straight move, diagonal capture).</li>
107 <li>Pawns can move two squares ahead from their initial position, provided they are not blocked.</li>
108 <li>On the move immediately after such a double push, they can be captured en passant by another Pawn,
109 as if they had only moved 1 square ahead.</li>
110 <li>Pawns promote to another (non-royal) piece of choice when they reach last rank.</li>
114 A King that has not moved before can move to the c1/c8 or g1/g8 in the direction of a Rook that has not moved before,
115 in which case that Rook is moved to the square on the other side next to the King.
116 This is only allowed if all squares traveled through by King and Rook are empty (after their removal),
117 when the King is not in check on the square it came from,
118 and would not be in check on any of the squares it skipped over.
120 <h3>General rules</h3>
122 <li>It is not allowed to expose your King to check.</li>
123 <li>The game is won by checkmating the opponent's King.</li>
124 <li>Stalemate (no legal moves, but not in check) is a draw.</li>
126 <h3>XBoard interface issues</h3>
128 You can use the New Shuffle dialog to control the randomization of the initial position.
130 <h3>Differences with FIDE</h3>
132 The start position is not fixed, but randomly picked.
133 Castling is generalized to allow it with non-standard placement of King and Rooks.
135 <h3>Strategy issues</h3>
137 It is not possible to force checkmate on a bare King with just a single Bishop or Knight (in addition to your own King).
138 Two Knights cannot do that either.
141 Bishops are confined to squares of a single color.
142 Having Bishops on both colors compensates this weakness, and is worth an extra 0.5 on top of their added value.