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Read the reviews of our new chess book:

Chessville.com review of PSCbyEC960, May 2006 ChessBooks.nl review of PSCbyEC960, November 2006 ChessCo.com pre-review of PSCbyEC960, March 2006 (then scroll near bottom)

Play Stronger Chess by Examining Chess960: Usable Strategies of Fischer Random Chess Discovered

by Gene Milener

This book was officially and fully released on 2006-01-26.


RETAILERS & DISTRIBUTORS:
The USA distributor is Ingram (and maybe Baker & Taylor).
The European distributors are Gardner and Bertram.


INDIVIDUALS:
This book is available from Amazon.com (and Amazon.co.uk for Europe), BarnesAndNoble.com, and others. Not all charge the same price.

PSCbyEC960 at Amazon.com

PSCbyEC960 at Amazon.co.uk

PSCbyEC960 at BarnesAndNoble.com

PSCbyEC960 at WalMart.com

Click this or the image for details.

We can learn a lot about fundamental chess by comparing chess960 (FRC) to traditional "chess1". By realizing the initial setups constitute an independent variable, an enormous range of comparisons becomes possible. New ideas and new perspectives were found in abundance just waiting to be discovered. One book can only scratch the surface.

Many have written about the principles of chess play for the opening, middle game, and endgame phases. Our examinations suggest some of the long accepted opening principles of chess apply only to chess1, and fail when we rearrange the pieces behind the pawns. Other more worthy opening principles apply regardless of the initial setup. The rate of middle game principle refinement would have been faster had chess960 been in vogue the past two centuries. Even the endgame is affected. This book adds the new setup phase. It describes a system of attribute analysis to guide the early moves in chess960.

Bobby Fischer proposed chess960 to reverse growing problems in chess1 concerning repetitious openings and draws. An even greater benefit of chess960 is the wonderful variety we can now see chess1 has been hiding from us all these decades. Logical positions arising from intelligent play are not awkward, but thinking them so reveals that our experiences from chess1 are more narrow than we have realized. We have been missing out on the full richness of Caissa's fundamental chess, and that is a shame. Chess960 is just chess.

Many of the world's top 25 grandmasters are accumulating victories in annual chess960 tournaments. It is time to examine chess960 in depth to discover the strategies, tactics, and variety it adds to chess in general.

Play Stronger Chess by Examining Chess960:
Usable Strategies of Fischer Random Chess Discovered
   by
Gene Milener


Introduction

PART 1:  Beyond the Board
1   Terminology and CRAN Notation
2   The Tyranny of Tradition
3   Formalizing the Rules of Chess960
4   Setup Id Numbers
5   Additional Rules to Consider for Chess960
6   FEN and Chess960

PART 2:  New Chess Principles Discovered
7   Strategies for the Modified Setup Phase
8   From Setup Attributes to Opening Moves
9   Is the Middle Game Really the Same?
10  Influences on the Endgame
11  Winning Comparisons
12  Reviewing Our Broadened Understanding of Chess
13  Annotated Games

Diagram Classification Answers
Bibliography


252 pages
6 x 9 inches (153mm x 228mm)
Paperback, Perfect Bound
ISBN  0-9774521-0-7
Castle Long Publications
	

(On front cover image, rooks by permission L-R: 1-3 The House of Staunton, 4 ChessAntique.com.)

Copyright 2005-2008 by Castle Long Publications.

Updated: 2008-07-19