A quick and easy way to create random Chess960 positions

2011-04-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

You will need 6 playing cards for this method.

Step 1 : Using only the first 4 cards (1-4), draw a random card out of them. This is the position of the dark-squared Bishop.

(Let's say we drew the 3)

Step 2 : Repeat the previous step. The new random number is the position of the light-squared Bishop.

(Let's say we drew the 3 again)

Step 3 : Using all 6 cards, draw 3 random cards. These are the positions of the Queen and the 2 Knights.

(Let's say we drew the 2, 1 and 6, in this order)

Step 4 : The remaining empty squares are for Rook, King, Rook, in this order, so that castling is possible.

Congratulations ! You are done !

NOTE : This method ensures that each one of the 960 possible positions have an equal probability to come.

Chess960 starting positions