LaviChess

What is Chess960?

Chess960 is chess where the pieces on the back rank are set up in one of 960 possible ways, drawn before the game. Bobby Fischer introduced it in 1996, and it's also called Fischer Random. The rules are otherwise the same, but openings learned by heart don't help.

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer

The prodigy who won in Reykjavík.

Wesley So

Wesley So

The first Chess960 world champion, four-time U.S. champion.

How the pieces are set up

The pawns stand as usual. The pieces behind them are shuffled, but three rules apply under FIDE's rules for Chess960: the king stands somewhere between the two rooks, the bishops stand on squares of opposite colors, and Black's pieces mirror White's.

abcdefgh87654321
Number 518 in Scharnagl's numbering: the ordinary setup.
abcdefgh87654321
Number 0: the bishops on a1 and b1, on opposite colors, and the king on g1 between the rooks.

That makes 960 setups: 4 squares for one bishop, 4 for the other, 6 for the queen, and 10 ways to place the two knights. After that, only one way is left for rook, king, and rook. 4 × 4 × 6 × 10 = 960.

The setups are numbered from 0 to 959, in a scheme by Reinhard Scharnagl. The ordinary setup is number 518.

Castling

You may castle once a game, as usual. After castling, king and rook stand on the same squares as in ordinary chess: the king on g1 and the rook on f1 on the kingside, the king on c1 and the rook on d1 on the queenside. Every square the king and the rook cross or land on must be empty, apart from the squares where the king and rook themselves stand.

In some setups you can castle on the very first move. The rest of the rules are the same as in ordinary chess, and they're in the chess rules.

Fischer's idea

Bobby Fischer introduced the variant in Buenos Aires on June 19, 1996. He wanted to reduce the weight of prepared openings and leave more room for ideas at the board.

The championships

Since 2019 there have been world championships in the variant recognized by FIDE.

YearChampionThe final
2019Wesley So, United Statesbeat Magnus Carlsen 13½–2½ on points, near Oslo
2022Hikaru Nakamura, United Statesbeat Ian Nepomniachtchi in Reykjavík after a deciding extra game
2026Magnus Carlsen, Norwaybeat Fabiano Caruana 2½–1½ in Weissenhaus, Germany

In 2019 the final's points were weighted by time control, hence 13½–2½ over six games. FIDE calls the 2026 championship the first official world championship in Freestyle Chess, as Chess960 is called in the series of events Carlsen co-founded. For Carlsen it was his first official world title in Chess960.

Sources

  • FIDE: Laws of Chess, effective from January 1, 2023 (Guidelines II, Chess960)
  • FIDE: History of Chess960; Wikipedia: Chess960; Chess960 numbering scheme
  • ChessBase, November 3, 2019, and the Russian Chess Federation, November 2, 2019: on the 2019 final
  • FIDE, October 31, 2022: New US World Champion Nakamura
  • FIDE, February 15, 2026: Magnus Carlsen wins 2026 FIDE Freestyle World Championship
  • ChessBase, July 25, 2024: on Freestyle Chess and its founders
  • The setups are worked out in this site's code, and the test checks that there are 960 and that number 518 is the ordinary one

The facts on this page come from the sources above and, where possible, were checked across several sources. Where the sources disagree, we say less or say what each one says. A number that is an estimate says whose it is, and a counted number comes with its date.

The photos:

Updated November 14, 2026