A quick and easy way to create random Chess960 positions

You will need 6 playing cards for this method.

A ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ A ♣

2 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 2 ♣

3 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 3 ♣

4 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 4 ♣

5 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 5 ♣

6 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 6 ♣

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)

3 ♣	♣	♣	♣
	♣	♣	♣
	♣	♣	♣	3 ♣

				♝
1		2		3		4

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)

3 ♣	♣	♣	♣
	♣	♣	♣
	♣	♣	♣	3 ♣

				♝	♝
	1		2		3		4

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)

2 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 2 ♣

A ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ A ♣

6 ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ 6 ♣

♞	♛			♝	♝		♞
1	2	3	4			5	6

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.

For a method with eight cards but only one draw click here.