3 ms·

It is not freestyle, it is "play a random position chosen by an algorithm" style. This is boring. Let the players freely place their pieces in the start positio

It is not freestyle, it is "play a random position chosen by an algorithm" style. This is boring. Let the players freely place their pieces in the start position, that would be of interest.

Sesse__ 8mo ago
Originally Freestyle Chess referred to something else entirely, namely “anything goes” online chess: https://en.chessbase.com/post/scintillating-che-in-the-pal-c-freestyle-tournament https://en.chessbase.com/post/scintillating-che-in-the-pal-c... You were allowed to use engines, opening books and tablebases. You were allowed to play in teams (GMs were part of some). You were even allowed to bribe your opponents into losing! But it died out fairly quickly and now the name has been reused to mean Chess960.
squigz 8mo ago
I wouldn't say it's "boring" (hence the downvotes, I imagine) - but this does seem like an interesting idea, to let the players choose their positions. Does such a style exist?
- nilslindemann 8mo ago
  It is called Placement chess, you can play it on PyChess. [1] As far as I know no tournament ever used this rule. [1] https://www.pychess.org/variants/placement https://www.pychess.org/variants/placement
  - squigz 8mo ago
    Apparently also called Bronstein Shuffle (which also sounds like a fun dance) A key part seems to be alternating turns placing pieces. I wonder if this would result in top level gameplay converging on certain opening placements? If so, I wonder how not taking turns but deciding on placement privately beforehand might affect gameplay. Anyway, maybe when the pros get sick of Chess960 they'll give this a shot :)
    - SauntSolaire 8mo ago
      It would be effectively be the opposite of Chess960 -- instead of reducing the impact of studying openings, it would add a whole genre of placement meta you'd need to study to be competitive.
copper4eva 8mo ago
I think that pretty much ruins the whole point of Fischer Random. The point is to not be able to open prep at all, and have to deal with a wide variety of opening possibilities. Too many to reasonable predict and prepare for past the first few moves. With being able to place your own pieces, you can much easily dictate your opening beforehand. And I have little to no doubt top players would converge towards certain optimal placements. And then you'd be back to playing the same positions over and over, just like standard chess. Which is what Fischer Random attempts to stray from. Also, on a more subjective note, quite the crazy opinion to call this format "boring". I haven't looked at these games yet, but the 2022 World Championship had some absolute crazy games. With crazy openings and positions that you just never get in standard chess.
delaminator 8mo ago
They changed the name because it was proposed by Fischer

It is not freestyle, it is "play a random position chosen by an algorithm" style. This is boring. Let the players freely place their pieces in the start position, that would be of interest.

Sesse__ 8mo ago

Originally Freestyle Chess referred to something else entirely, namely “anything goes” online chess: https://en.chessbase.com/post/scintillating-che-in-the-pal-c-freestyle-tournament https://en.chessbase.com/post/scintillating-che-in-the-pal-c... You were allowed to use engines, opening books and tablebases. You were allowed to play in teams (GMs were part of some). You were even allowed to bribe your opponents into losing! But it died out fairly quickly and now the name has been reused to mean Chess960.

squigz 8mo ago

I wouldn't say it's "boring" (hence the downvotes, I imagine) - but this does seem like an interesting idea, to let the players choose their positions. Does such a style exist?

nilslindemann 8mo ago
It is called Placement chess, you can play it on PyChess. [1] As far as I know no tournament ever used this rule. [1] https://www.pychess.org/variants/placement https://www.pychess.org/variants/placement
- squigz 8mo ago
  Apparently also called Bronstein Shuffle (which also sounds like a fun dance) A key part seems to be alternating turns placing pieces. I wonder if this would result in top level gameplay converging on certain opening placements? If so, I wonder how not taking turns but deciding on placement privately beforehand might affect gameplay. Anyway, maybe when the pros get sick of Chess960 they'll give this a shot :)
  - SauntSolaire 8mo ago
    It would be effectively be the opposite of Chess960 -- instead of reducing the impact of studying openings, it would add a whole genre of placement meta you'd need to study to be competitive.

copper4eva 8mo ago

I think that pretty much ruins the whole point of Fischer Random. The point is to not be able to open prep at all, and have to deal with a wide variety of opening possibilities. Too many to reasonable predict and prepare for past the first few moves. With being able to place your own pieces, you can much easily dictate your opening beforehand. And I have little to no doubt top players would converge towards certain optimal placements. And then you'd be back to playing the same positions over and over, just like standard chess. Which is what Fischer Random attempts to stray from. Also, on a more subjective note, quite the crazy opinion to call this format "boring". I haven't looked at these games yet, but the 2022 World Championship had some absolute crazy games. With crazy openings and positions that you just never get in standard chess.

delaminator 8mo ago

They changed the name because it was proposed by Fischer