2nd WWW Fischer Random Progressive Chess Championship

Round 1 Setup

The above setup was used for all the games in round one. The starting position is rather quiet. Both kings are safe, with all the squares around them securely defended.

The most useful opening moves in this position appear to be b4 and e4 for white (b5 and e5 for black). These moves provide open lines for the bishops, threaten to remove the enemy queen, and give the king some room. Opening play in this position is slower than many others. Due to the safe position of the kings, there is no particular hurry to remove the queens. In a typical game, queens should come off on the 4-6.

Hasty attempts to remove the queens led to many opening problems in round 1 games. 1. Nf3 was tried by Ottavio, but if followed up with NxQ, this quickly results in a black advantage. Similarly, 1. b4 is only good when followed up by sensible development and not by the hasty 3. BxQ, which will lead to some trouble for white. Great care must be taken to avoid time-consuming removal of the enemy queen. Frequently, the primary decision is rather or not to remove the queen with the bishop or the king's knight. Often one choice is good, while the other proves fatal.

The maneuvers of the knights are often dictated by the position of the enemy king. If a knight develops early to h3, for example, the enemy king can then develop to d7 without fear of a check on e5 (if the knight were still on g1, for example). Often it is better to delay developing the knights in this setup, since they can leap to deliver an annoying check once the enemy king has moved off the back rank.

In summation, this setup is remarkable in its stability. Avoiding early mates is relatively simple, and the games are often decided by how each player chooses to remove the other's queen and by how he chooses to develop his king and knights.

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