Fischer 960 Tournament in March 2014

The Chess Club’s Hans Multhopp and Andy Mackowiak hosted a two-week event dedicated to the Chess960 chess variation. Chess960 (or Fischer Random Chess) was developed by Bobby Fischer and is one of the most common chess variations in use today. The rules are nearly identical to the standard game, but the pieces along the back row are randomly placed for each player. This allows for 960 different ways to set up the board at the start of a game and means that standard book openings cannot be used. All players, novice or master, must rely on pure chess instinct and creativity from the very first move. It’s an exciting variation that leads to some very interesting games and helps to level the playing field for all players.

Our first week's tournament featured three quads. The top quad had an average rating of 2170, and we had two youth members as well to round out a very diverse field of players. Check out pictures from the first night below. The winners of each quad are:

• Hans Multhopp - Top Quad
• (tie) Doug Dysart, Leo Zamansky, Andy Mackowiak - Second Quad
• (tie) Tim Lake, Justin Storn - Third Quad

In our second week of 960 play, we had three new quads for players to compete in. There winners of the second round are:

• (tie) Hans Multhopp, Oleg Fabrikant - Top Quad
• Leo Zamansky - Second Quad
• Ben Bryant - Third Quad