1. The bishops must be placed on opposite-color squares.
2. The king must be placed on a square between the rooks.
3. Black's pieces are opposite to White's
4. Castling in 960 has the same rules as regular castling, except the rooks and king are in different spots!

Stockfish evaluates the Chess960 opening positions between 10 and 50 centipawn advantage for White. (The evaluation for standard chess is 20 centipawns) The great things about 960 is that you do not need to have any opening knowledge - both you and your opponent are playing on completely new turf. While this certainly is exciting, this poses some obvious challenges, such as how to open the game. In this blog, we will be covering the basics of Chess960, such as how to start the game well and how to make moves that will be to your advantage.

Opening - 

This is probably going to be the most difficult part of Chess90 when you first start out. After all, there are no "Ruy Lopez's", or "Evan's Gambits" or even, everyone's favourite, "Berlin Defences", you have to come up with your own opening inventions.  Here are a few helpful tips on how to start out a 960 game 

1. Envision where you want you pieces to go

Do not worry too much about what your opponent is doing, unless they are threatening to do something. Generally, in 960, I find it the most helpful to picture the ideal set-up for my pieces and then try to play it out. I find this is much more effective than moving pieces without a clear goal in mind. Try to picture a set-up that you enjoy playing in standard chess and then try to play it out! Here is an example - 

Starting position - 

(Credits. Help from @Vicariously-I. Please join his club Vicariously's Challengers to challenge him to a fun vote chess game)