whatthefat: Well well, this looks interesting. My immediate inclination is toward 1.d4 or even 1.g4. Ideally, it would be nice to castle kingside, and play g3 for our automatically fianchettoed bishop, which makes the f1-knight a bit of a problem. I guess my ideal set-up would involve a double fianchetto, with pawns on d4 and c4. Our troublesome knight can then occupy either d2 or e3, like so:

click for larger view

One of the interesting features of the starting position is the amount of pressure each side can put on their QP5.

JointheArmy: d4 is probably the best move here - if that even exists - since from the e-file to the a-file is the exact same as in a regular chess game.

However, I really like how g4 looks and it would probably lead to a more interesting game than d4 would.

ganstaman: I hate upside down boards :(

<kellmano> Don't lie to yourself like I tried to -- we have the black pieces!

ganstaman: By the way: Fischerandom Chess Generator

From the first page:

<Sneaky: Some differences I've noticed in Fischerandom, regarding the openings:

Sometimes you can have a "bad bishop" in a corner blocked in by a pawn, which is far worse than any bishop you've ever seen in conventional chess. Don't let that happen to you!

The outlandish plan on moving a pawn in front of a rook then transfering the rook to the 3rd rank, even in the opening, rarely works in normal chess. But in FR you can often get away with it!

I find that d4 or e4 is almost always a sensible opening move, and if the opponent attempts a "strong point" defense (meeting d4 with d5, or e4 with e5) then attacking their pawn with c4/f4 is almost always a gambit worth considering.>

Sneaky: I justed signed up and I'm flattered to see ancient posts of mine quoted!

Anyhow glad to be here... I guess we got a lot to talk about. Fascinating how much this is like normal chess. Opening Theory for normal chess won't apply, but it might be full of metaphors for this type of position.

Sneaky: Just to clarify... we can castle on move 2, can't we?

E.g. 1.e4 Ne6 2.d4 O-O

That's legal, isn't it? No need to get that bishop out of the corner before we castle?

realbrob: A Fischerandom game... Interesting. Though for a crazy moment when I first saw the board I thought that we had picked up the normal starting position - that would have been really bad luck.

I'm interested in Fischerandom but I don't know a lot about it... So, if I got it right we can castle kingside and our g1 rook will be in the "normal" f1 position, is it correct?

1.d4 is a pretty natural move, it sets a foot in the centre of the board and frees the DSB diagonal, as usual. If we find a good place for our f1 knight we can easily go for a sort-of-QGD system in which we play d4, c4, Nc3, g3, Nf3, O-O.

Can we use engines as well?

VargPOD: d4 is my pick.

f1 knight does look a bit akward, but can find a place in d2 supporting c4 and e4.

realbrob,
<Type of challenge: Team Game Rate of play: 2 days per half-move
Type of voting: OPEN
Rollover time: 16:00 (USA/Eastern)
Fischer Random Chess: YES
Current number of players: 10 vs 9
Are computers allowed? YES
Whose move is it currently? WHITE>

Hesam7: Hi everyone (except Zoidberg).

Can somebody explain the castling rules properly?? Do we have to move our bishop to castle K-side??

whatthefat: <Hesam7>

The rules are described here: Fischerandom Chess Generator

For castling kingside, our king ends up on g1, rook on f1. The bishop can stay on h1.

Hesam7: thx <whatthefat>.

Alright what is wrong with this plan 1 g4 2 Ng3 3 O-O. I think the same plan with g3 is worse because it takes away the natural square for the f1-knight.

whatthefat: Looking again at the position, the f- and h-pawns are potentially very weak once the f1-knight moves. Probably both sides will castle before this can be exploited, but it's still an idea to consider.

One more random thought: I wonder whether this starting position is more or less drawish than the standard one? While most believe the standard starting position is a theoretical draw, I imagine some starting positions would be theoretical wins for White.

whatthefat: <Hesam7>

Well, after 1.g4 d5, Black threatens 2...Bxg4 if 2.Ng3. Also, wouldn't our king be feeling a bit too much of the breeze with the g-pawn advanced so far? Black could consider playing ...h5 at some point to pry open a file for their rook.

kellmano: <Sneaky: Just to clarify... we can castle on move 2, can't we?>

Yes indeed. And because we can i reckon we should.

Hesam7: <One more random thought: I wonder whether this starting position is more or less drawish than the standard one? While most believe the standard starting position is a theoretical draw, I imagine some starting positions would be theoretical wins for White.>

My first thoughts! I even asked myself could there be a configuration that is a theoretical win for Black?? I am sure that there some in which White wins since in some configurations the first move advantage is pretty big.