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This page is written by the game's inventor, Jose Carrillo.

International Fischer Random Chess



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International Fischer Random Chess (IFRC) is a variant inspired by International Contemporary Random Chess (ICRC) and Fischer Random Chess (Chess960), played on a Polish or International Draughts (Checkers) 10x10 board:



IFRC applies Chess960 random rules and direct symmetry to a ICRC layout (which was itself inspired by English Random Chess and Contemporary Random Chess)



International Contemporary Random Chess (left diagram, with reverse symmetry) and English Random Chess (right diagram, without any symmetry and an absolutely random setup)

Setup



In International Fischer Random Chess the pawns are placed on the players' 3rd rank, with the pieces randomly placed behind the pawns. There are no men on the first and last files or ranks.

All pieces are randomly placed in the players' second rank, à la Fischer, with the restriction that the King must be between the two rooks (to allow FRC castling) and that the Bishops are in opposite color squares.

The opponents’ pieces are placed with direct symmetry (White’s piece at b2 is equivalent to Black’s b9, White’s c2 to Black’s c9, White’s d2 to Black’s d9, White’s e2 to Black’s e9, and so on…)

There are 960 different legal starting positions in International Fischer Random Chess.

Pieces

Orthodox Chess pieces are exclusively used.

Rules

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All rules for Fischer Random Chess (Chess960) apply to IFRC, including FRC castling and en passant. Pawn promotion takes place when pawns reach their 10th rank.

Castling

The International Fischer Random Chess castling rules are the same as in the Fischer Random Chess, but ajusted to the International 10x10 board.

In IFRC, depending on the pre-castling position on the castling King and Rook, the castling manoeuvre is performed by one of these four methods:


Castling the King and Rook will be placed as if the player had castled in Orthodox Chess (but relative to the inner 8x8 squares in the 10x10 board).

Thus, after long or d-castling (notated as O-O-O), the King is on the d-square (d2 for White and d9 for Black) and the Rook is on the e-square (e2 for White and e9 for Black). After short or h-castling (notated as O-O), the King is on the h-square (h2 for White and h9 for Black) and the Rook is on the g-square (g2 for White and g9 for Black).

This table shows where the King and Rook end up and the notation for each type of castling.

White castles a-sidec-castlingO-O-OKd2, Re2
White castles j-sideh-castlingO-OKh2, Rg2
Black castles a-sidec-castlingO-O-OKd9, Re9
Black castles j-sideh-castlingO-OKh9, Rg9

However, castling may only occur under the following conditions, which are extensions of the standard rules for castling:

These rules have the following consequences:

Notes

International Fischer Random Chess (IFRC) was proposed by José Manuel Carrillo-Muñiz, from Puerto Rico in 2008.

Game Courier Preset

International Fischer Random Chess preset

Game Courier Logs

Game Courier Logs for Games of International Fischer Random Chess

To see actual games that have been played on-line, follow the link above.

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This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By Jose Carrillo.
Web page created: 2008-08-03. Web page last updated: 2008-08-03