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How to play Chess960: rules and setup

Chess960 is played by 2 players on a board with 8 × 8 squares. White moves first. Play chess from one of 960 legal starting arrangements, with special castling rules.

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Play Chess960

Quick answer

Chess960, or Fischer Random Chess, is standard chess with the back-rank pieces shuffled into one of 960 starting positions. The bishops stand on opposite colours, the king stands between the rooks, and both sides mirror each other. Pawns, piece moves and checkmate are unchanged. After castling, the king and rook finish on the usual c/d or g/f files. This guide covers Chess960. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
8 × 8 squares
First move
White moves first.

Ruleset and sources: Chess960

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Base rules: chess, except where this guide says otherwise. The back ranks mirror each other. Bishops occupy opposite colours and the king starts between the rooks. Pawns use their usual ranks. White moves first.

Board
8 × 8 squares
Players
2
First move
White moves first.
Rules used here
Chess960

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Pieces move and capture as in chess. Check, en passant and promotion apply; the king must stay safe.

  • Using the board

    Select a piece to see its legal destinations, then select a highlighted square. When several promotions are available, choose from the promotion panel.

Special rules

  • After castling, the king is on c or g and the rook on d or f, regardless of their starting squares.

  • The required paths must be clear except for the castling pair, and the king cannot start, pass through or finish in check.

  • Select the king and then its rook to castle.

Winning and draws

  • Checkmate wins.

  • Stalemate is a draw, and a position where neither side can ever checkmate, such as king against king, is drawn automatically.

  • A player may claim a draw after the same position occurs three times, or after 50 moves by each side without a capture or pawn move.

  • Neither rule ends the game automatically.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
Chess960
  1. Primary source · FIDE Laws of Chess — Guidelines II: Chess960 rules
  2. Lichess — Chess960 rules
  3. Fairy-Stockfish variants (implementation reference)
  4. Fairy-Stockfish — variant definitions (43b66c8, implementation reference)

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.