Can chess.com add the Pre-Chess variant? (aka Shuffle-, Placement-, Meta-, Bronstein-, Benko-chess)

Pre-Chess is a simple variation with a rich, high-level history. The game starts with the pawns on the board (2nd row) and the first 8 moves for both players involve placing their other pieces in their home row. The only questions that arise are how to handle the placement of bishops (restrict to opposite colors or not), and castling (forbid completely, or allow only if the king and rook start in their orthochess locations). Since I teach chess to 2nd graders, I prefer simplicity in both cases... no castling and the free placement of bishops.

Castling: My guess is that the vast majority of non-beginners would choose to start the game with their king in a protected, castle-like, position. Thus, I don't see the point in adding an unnecessary, complicated set of rules about castling to the Pre-Chess rulebook, when it would only apply to a handful of suboptimal setups. (When you're teaching kids, you find that castling is one of the hardest things to explain... it's the only time when two pieces move at once, and there are so many conditions to remember.)

Bishops: Do we know if it's an advantage or not to have both your bishops on the same color? I'd really like to see what games would look like if White puts both bishops on the light squares and Black puts both bishops on the dark squares. I don't see the reason to mandate opposite-colored bishops. If it's a definite advantage to have (or not to have) opposite colored bishops, both players will place their pieces accordingly.

Below are some articles about Pre-Chess, linked and copied here for convenience, with some personal highlighting:

Bronstein Chess / Pre-Chess / Shuffle Chess by National Life Master Loal Davis (June 16, 2014)

Pal Benko:

“The continual refinement of technique and assimilation of knowledge, particularly in the openings, will gradually lead to the extinction of the game – it will be solved, played out… Most of the blame – if that is the word – must fall on the vast store of opening information that is available to every player (and every computer). The amount of study a master has to do to remain up to date in the openings would suffice for a college education. If he neglects his studies his score suffers. I think this corrupts the essential nature of chess, which is a fight between the creative ideas of two individuals. The vast array of predetermined opening variations and theories is, in my view, so much dead weight that should be discarded to save the true values of chess… The task, then, is to find a minimal change in the rules that would retain as much of the present game as possible and yet eliminate its worst feature, the over-analyzed starting position. … The placing of the pieces has a strategy all its own … It is clear that neither player, if he is alert, can get a serious disadvantage in this phase… Although White still has the first move, this gives Black the potentially important first clue as to how to place his own forces. It seems to me that for this reason the chances of the two sides are more nearly equal in Pre-Chess than in the standard game and that this will have the effect of producing not more draws but more exciting chess.”

Benko credited the idea of “Pre-Chess” or “Shuffle-Chess” to David Bronstein who proposed the idea in the late 40’s, but it most likely pre-dates even that. Benko showed the variant to former world champion Max Euwe (also a math professor), who not only liked the idea, but gave an estimate that the number of starting positions exceeded four million. The problem was later given to a Harvard math professor and he concluded that the number actually exceeds 8 million.

Pre-Chess

• The positions of the pieces are decided entirely by the players, not by a computer program. Strategic chess thinking therefore begins with the first piece placement. The two players place their pieces alternately, one at a time. White does not necessarily have any advantage here; in fact, Black may have the advantage because Black gets the first look at the opponent’s placements.

• The pieces may occupy any square as long as the bishops are on opposite colors. The kings do not have to be placed between the rooks.

• Castling is permitted only if the unmoved king is on e1/e8 and an unmoved rook is on a1/a8 or h1/h8; orthodox castling rules apply. The possibility of castling is up to the players, who may or may not place their kings and rooks appropriately.

• There are 8,294,400 possible opening positions.

In 1978 there was a “Pre-Chess” match conducted between GM Arthur Bisguier (Left) and GM Pal Benko (Right). The match was four games and Bisguier won the match 3.5 to .5.

I am trying to get the games of this match but have only been able to find one (the third match game).

White shoves a Rook down Black’s throat on move 20.

Black struck back and is about to Queen a distant Pawn on move 39.

White concludes with a mating attack and is about to make his 43rd move.

The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (pdf, pg 77)

Pre-Chess (1978, advocated by Pal Benkö who credits David Bronstein with the idea). Pawns are set up as usual, then each player in turn, White starting, puts a piece on a vacant square on his first rank until all are in place; bishops must be on opposite-coloured squares, and castling is permitted only if K and R are both in their orthochess positions. Endorsed initially by Euwe as ‘an interesting new idea’ and ‘worth trying’ (Chess Life, August 1978). A four-game match (1978) between Benkö and Arthur Bisguier was won convincingly, if with a slice or two of luck, by the latter. 

The Chess Life articles sparked an interest in the game across America. Tournaments were held (one, in 1979, won by Joel Benjamin). Schema, a games magazine, ran a feature article, re-naming the game MetaChess [Schema] and describing the initial deployment as a Meta-phase. Philip Cohen had suggested a ‘Super’ version in 1977 in which both sides had advanced pawns in the initial position, as in the Burmese game (White f3, g3, h3; Black a6, b6, c6) (Nostalgia 240). Meanwhile Burt Hochberg, former Chess Life editor, in an interview that received wide publicity, declared the articles had generated an enthusiastic response (‘readers loved it’) but that no letters or follow-up articles appeared in Chess Life apparently because the USCF had disapproved of space being allocated to chess variants.

List of Chess Variants, Wikipedia

Pre-chess: The game starts with white and black pawns set as usual, but the initial position of other pieces is selected by the players. White first places one of his pieces on his first rank, and then Black does the same. Players continue to alternate in this manner until all pieces have been placed, with the only restriction being that bishops must be on opposite-colour squares. The game then proceeds in the usual way. Proposed by Pal Benko in 1978.

Hey there! Interesting variants!  Consider sending this in as a suggestion in the bottom of the left Chess.com menu: Help > Make a Suggestion 

Thanks! Will do!

It's probably a inspiration for Fischer random, but Fischer Random's objective is to remove standardised openings, and this would not occur in this varient as there is going to be a standardised way of placing your pieces.

Many varients have pedigree and endorsements by famous GMs, you named one and there are others which have been and are indeed named after famous GMs.

This varient is similar to setup chess, which is on chess.com.