Evans On Chess. August 16, 1996. Copyright Chesstours. All rights reserved.

    White: Qa1, Rb1, Nc1, Kd1, Be1, Nf1, Rg1, Bh1. Pawns remain the same.

    Black: Qa8, Rb8, Nc8, Kd8, Be8, Nf8, Rg8, Bh8. Pawns remain the same.

                            This Game Starts Here!

                              960 WAYS TO START

David Ionovich Bronstein was my boyhood hero. At 17 I annotated some of his 
best games and cranked out 500 copies on a mimeograph machine.

Bronstein was ahead of his time. He revitalized the King's Indian Defense, 
which is today more popular than ever, and his style reflected the dynamic 
Soviet school of chess that was to dominate the game after World War II.

In 1951 he nearly dethroned the legendary Mikhail Botvinnik, who saved his 
crown only on a 12-12 tie. Alas, Bronstein never again scaled the heights. 
His results lagged because he was more interested in creating beautiful games 
than in scoring points, and he was eclipsed by a new wave of Soviet stars. 

I was surprised recently to get a letter from Bronstein, still going strong at 
72. He thanked me once again for inscribing my book about him when we first 
met at the 1952 Olympiad, adding, "Happily, during my long life in chess, I 
continue to work productively and have two more chess books coming out."

Like Bobby Fischer, with whom he drew twice, Bronstein also fears computers 
may ruin creative chess. "When I saw the new rules that Fischer announced for 
Random Chess, I did not say to myself this is nothing for an old grandmaster. 
On the contrary, I immediately tried it out and found it quite playable. I'm 
also tired of studying thousands of opening variations while in reality you 
can only play one in one game."

He continued: "This year when Belgium invited me to play top board in a 
friendly 30-board match against Holland, my opponent agreed to use Fischer's 
rules in our game. The time limit was 90 minutes each side for 40 moves, then 
15 minutes apiece for the rest of the game."

There are 960 possible ways to start when pieces on the back row are shuffled 
at random by computer to form a mirror image before each game. Bishops must 
stand on opposite colored squares, and all other chess rules are the same. 

This is the first game of Random Chess I ever saw. It looks weird and throws 
book knowledge out the window but the tried and tested general principles seem 
to apply, including Fischer's famous maxim: "The most important principle in 
chess is centralizing your pieces." 

The initial position of this game is shown at the top of the column. Note: 
When Black castles here at move 10, his King crosses over to g8 and the Rook 
goes to f8, as in a normal game. Players also have the option of castling on 
the queenside.

                            White: DAVID BRONSTEIN

                              Black: RUDI DOUVEN

                         Random Chess: June 30, 1996

                        Start play from above diagram!

1 d4 d5 2 Nd3 Nd6 3 g3 e6 4 Bb4 a5 5 Bxd6 cxd6 6 a4 Qa6 7 Nd2 Nd7 8 b3 Nf6 9 
c4 Bd7 10 e3 0-0 11 Ke2 g6 12 Rgc1 Rfe8 13 Qa3 e5 14 dxe5 dxe5 15 b4 e4 16 Nc5 
Bg4 17 Ke1 Qd6 18 cxd5 Qxd5 19 bxa5 Qh5 20 h4 Bf5 21 Nxb7 Qg4 22 Bg2 Nh5 23 
Nf1 Be6 24 a6 Be5 25 Nh2 Qf5 26 Nd6 Bxd6 27 Qxd6 Qa5 28 Kf1 Rxb1 29 Rxb1 Rd8 
30 Rb8 Bc8 31 Rxc8! Rxc8 32 Bxe4 Qxa4 33 Bb7 Rc2 34 Qb8 Kg7 35 a7 Nxg3 36 Kg2 
Nf5 37 a8/Q Nxe3 38 Kf3 Rxf2 39 Kxf2 Nd1 40 Kg3 Qb3 41 Bf3 Black Resigns
