Chess960 Results (a bit late)

“Chess960 is healthy and good for your chess. If you get into it and not just move the pieces to achieve known positions it really improves your chess vision.”
-- GM Levon Aronian

Place	Name/Team	Score	MMed	Solk	Cum	CumOp
1	Walton Taylor (10)	5	12.5	14	15	44
2	Ellis Curly (3)	4	12.5	14	12	45
3	Uriatre Andrew (8)	3	14.5	16.5	10	50
4	Frye Hunter (4)	3	12.5	14.5	8	46
5	Porth Desmond (6)	3	11.5	11.5	8	38
6	Porth Adam (5)	3	9	9	5	25
7	Bates Alex (1)	2	8	12	9	36
8	Clark Riley (2)	2	8	11	7	37
9	Porth Dylan (7)	2	6.5	11.5	6	35
10	Weatherly Real (12)	2	5	7.5	4	21
11	Weatherly Colten (11)	1	5	7.5	1	24

Sorry about the long delay in posting the results of the February 9 tournament, but it has been a busy month with the Idaho Closed, the first Wood River Elementary School Championship, the Girl's Scholastic Championship, the Spring Warm-up, and preparing for the High School National Championship and the Idaho Scholastic Championship, among other things like work and family.  I also presented to the School Board our Nationals trip request and finally obtained appropriate permissions to run an elective credit secondary level chess class at Wood River High School.  More posts to follow about some of those projects.

Chess960 is a variant of classic chess with only a few differences.  One distinction is that the back rank of both sides is randomized with the caveat that the king is somewhere between the two rooks.  Castling lands the rook and king on the same squares that they would normally land on in classic chess.  Chess960 was formerly called Fischer Random Chess and was tauted as "real" chess by Bobby Fischer.  I have noted that numerous chess players have adopted this variant and tenaciously play it (Why Chess960?, Chess960@home, Chess960 (FRC), Chess960 Jungle).

Our Chess960 night was a fabulous success, with Taylor Walton winning with a perfect tournament score.  Curly Ellis and Andrew Uriarte, both 12th graders, followed with 2nd and 3rd place, respectively.  I seemed to struggle thinking about following opening principles and not paying attention to elementary tactics like pins, skewers, and forks.  I lost my queen in two games!  I strained to find familiar patterns and spent much of my time thinking about the value of Chess960.  I discovered that Chess960 teaches strategic thinking as you search through the maze of unique positions.  Interestingly, castling early may not be a benefit and one needs to carefully consider certain sacrifices.  With pieces not in their familiar positions, elementary tactics become stronger and more difficult to plan.  Consequently, your vision of the board is challenged and tested.

The tournament was smooth and contained the enthusiasm that the youths brought.  I projected the positions using "Chess960 Position Selector" from DGT Innovators on the classroom screen and let the students set the positions.  I used my laptop to display the pairings and run WinTD.  For a small tournament, this worked elegantly.  Something to note for the future, record the initial setup number on scoresheets, because they are useless without the starting position!

I am convinced that the students that participated took away valuable lessons and they enthusiastically welcomed the novelty of Chess960.  We are planning to engage in this underrated chess variant as a tool to improve our classic chess skills and will crown a high school Chess960 Champion each year.  Taylor Walton graduated last year and will not be eligible for the high school plaque. So, the champion for 2011 is Chris "Curly" Ellis with four points.

Chris playing in Ogden 2010