Chess960, also called Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant announced by the former world champion Bobby Fischer at a press conference in Buenos Aires in 1996. The pieces are set up on the first rank in a random order, with some restrictions: the bishops must stand on squares of opposite color, and the king must be placed between the two rooks, which allows castling. That gives nine hundred and sixty possible starting positions. Fischer's aim was to reduce the importance of memorizing opening theory and to emphasize creativity and calculation from the first move. The variant has since gained a following, with events and championships organized by FIDE.
Before and after
- 17 February 1996Launch of NEAR Shoemaker
- 27 February 1996Launch of Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- 12 April 1996Discovery of 55 Cancri b
- May 1996Founding of Internet Archive
- 19 June 1996Origins of Chess960
- 28 June 1996Constitution of Ukraine
- 17 July 1996Founding of Community of Portuguese Language Countries
- 31 July 1996Creation of Windows NT 4.0
- 7 August 1996NASA announces possible Martian microfossils in a meteorite
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The era
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