Last weekend, the 5th International Chess960 Festival was held at Kreuzberg Chess Club in Berlin. The event is open to anyone wishing to give Chess960 a go and this year incorporated the 1st official German Chess960 Championship. A whopping prize fund of €10,000 naturally attracted titled players and plenty of people from abroad, including my fellow Chess960 fanatics at FRCUK, Thomas Quilter and Evangelos Kostopoulos, who managed to persuade me to enter my first ever competitive Chess960 event. There was also a live commentary team consisting of Elisabeth Pähtz (GM) and the President of the Berlin Chess Association, Paul Meyer-Dunker, who were streaming the event in German to the world-wide web.…

On 25th February 2023, Copthall School, Mill Hill hosted the 1st London Fischer Random Chess UK Rapidplay. Despite its relatively late announcement and limited publicity, a small but remarkably strong field assembled boasting eight titled players, including two GMs and three IMs. The pre-tournament atmosphere was relaxed as the players gave the opening prep a rest and looked forward to a day of creative, chaotic chess. The time control for the event was 25 minutes per side plus 5 seconds increment, and the starting positions were posted a couple of minutes before the start of each round. Round 1 The first round saw a fairly ‘normal’ looking starting position, with…