Fischer random chess starting position

A Fischer random chess starting position is one of 960 possible initial game positions in the chess variant Fischer random chess. The special arrangement of pieces on the players' first ranks is selected randomly before play according to Fischer random chess rules, and can be generated either by a computer program, or using dice, coin, cards, etc.

Starting position requirements

White pawns are placed on the second rank as in standard chess. All remaining white pieces are placed randomly on the first rank, with two restrictions:

  • The bishops must be placed on opposite-color squares.
  • The king must be placed on a square between the rooks.

Black's pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to White's pieces. For example, if the white king is randomly determined to start on f1, then the black king is placed on f8. (The king never starts on the a - or h -files, since this would leave no space for a rook.)

Methods for creating starting positions

Most commonly, software is used to generate the starting position, as was used in the 2019 World Fischer Random Championship.

Ingo Althofer

If this is not available, there are several other procedures for generating random starting positions with equal probability. In 1998, Ingo Althöfer proposed the "single die method", a method that requires only a single standard die.[1][2]

If a full set of polyhedral dice is available (a tetrahedron (d4), cube (d6), octahedron (d8), dodecahedron (d12), and a icosahedron (d20)), one never needs to reroll any dice.

Since all 960 starting positions have been assigned a number (per the Fischer Random Chess numbering scheme) any method that generates a random number between 0 and 959 can be used to generate a starting position.

See also

References
  1. Althöfer, Ingo (March 1998). van den Herik, Jaap (ed.). "LIST-3-HIRN vs. Grandmaster Yusupov". International Computer Chess Association (ICCA). Universiteit Maastricht. 21 (1): 52–60. ISSN 0920-234X.
  2. Hans Bodlaender (2002-05-10). "Fischer Random Chess: Manual Procedure for Generating Piece Placements". The Chess Variant Pages. Retrieved 2013-01-26.
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