White is not winning in Freestyle Chess

Extensive analysis by Arno Nickel in the Chess960 Yearbook 2025

Oh no, not that too! Don't panic: "Chess960" is emblazoned across an unusual diagram. A theory yearbook for Chess960? It looks like the old black theory yearbooks published by New in Chess. At first glance it doesn't bode well for anyone who wants to play chess free from the burden of theory.

Freestyle Chess, as it was called over Easter when the Grenke Freestyle Open took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, won many new friends with the tournament - and not only because all participants had the opportunity to play in a tournament with Magnus Carlsen.

Flicking through the book for the first time, the fear that Chess960 would now start developing opening theory for the 959 starting positions away from the one 'normal position' is briefly dispelled. On page 8, author Arno Nickel reveals in the English text that he 'feels excitement from the first move' in Chess960. This was also the case when he participated in the A-Open in Karlsruhe.

Tribute to the inventors and promoters

His work is therefore primarily a tribute to the inventors of Chess960 and its promoters, above all Bobby Fischer, who conceived Fischer Random Chess, and Hans-Walter Schmitt, who first promoted the variant in his Chess Classic rapid chess tournaments in Mainz and gave it the name Chess960 in a survey of participants in 2002. Now the final breakthrough could come, as Magnus Carlsen is becoming increasingly enthusiastic about Freestyle Chess and Jan Henric Buettner is inviting other top players to join the Norwegian for a Grand Slam tour. Sponsor Buettner has announced that in a few months' time the aces of Freestyle Chess will be competing in Las Vegas in an even more spectacular show than in Karlsruhe.

Arno Nickel (left) meets Hans-Walter Schmitt at the Freestyle-A-Open in Karlsruhe. The inventor of the name Chess960 and promoter of this form of chess drew with the author of the Chess960 Yearbook. | Photo: Harald Fietz

The hope that the enormous theoretical baggage that has accumulated for the standard starting position, position number 518 in Chess960, can be consigned to the archives, is deceptive. In fact, Nickel, who is a grandmaster in correspondence chess, has used Stockfish to determine the four best openings for each of the 960 starting positions! This results in 3,840 rated openings with eight or more initial moves. The good news is that, despite all the prophecies of doom, Nickel has disproved the common prejudice among critics that Black is 'beaten from the start' in some positions.

Starting position 868 is best for White

After the first nine moves, Stockfish thinks White has an advantage of 0.8 points in position 868 (Qa1, Bb1, Bc1, Rd1, Ke1, Rf1, Ng1 and Nh1) with 0.8 pawn units. This is followed by position 783 (Qd1, Rb1, Kc1, Nd1, Re1, Nf1, Bg1 and Bh1) with an advantage of 0.69 pawn units. Around half a dozen other positions guarantee White +0.6 or more. However, most starting formations offer White only an academic advantage of one to two tenths of a point, which is about the same advantage Stockfish gives White in the Ruy Lopez, which Stockfish rates as the best opening with +0.21 in normal chess. In fact, positions 320, 356, 401 and 823 are completely balanced and come with an evaluation of 0.00, something that cannot be said about position number 518!

150 annotated game

150 Chess960 games with annotations in Informator style round off the softcover edition, which is available for 32 Euros. Anyone who wants to get seriously involved in Chess960 cannot afford to miss this first edition on Chess960 from Edition Marco. It remains to be seen whether Nickel will be able to publish annual editions regularly in the future. Even though the premiere is thoroughly enjoyable, the opening assessments actually cover the essentials.

Arno Nickel: Chess 960 – Yearbook 2025
Edition Marco, 352 pages
ISBN 978-3-924833-89-3, 32 Euros