Welcome to the Chess960v2 Era: An Experiment That Will Change Chess
Welcome to the Chess960v2 Era: An Experiment That Will Change Chess
We are happy to welcome you to the launch of Chess960v2.com!
On January 22, 2026, we turned the page on chess theory and launched an unprecedented experiment — the 1st official championship of the extended Fischer chess format.
In classical chess we study one starting position for centuries, and in standard Chess960 we deal with mirrored setups. We went further. What happens if the strongest silicon mind plays against itself in every possible non‐mirrored combination?
A grand scale: 921,600 unique games
The idea is simple and monumental at once: the legendary engine Stockfish (v15.1) plays against itself. The key condition is a full enumeration of variants. Each of the 960 possible starting positions for White plays against each of the 960 positions for Black.
- 960 rounds over the year.
- 921,600 unique battles.
- Asymmetry: Opponents’ positions do not have to be mirrored, which creates entirely new strategic patterns.
Technical power
To make this marathon possible, we use powerful hardware running 24/7. Games are played simultaneously on 12 boards with a 2‐second per move time control. This lets us run at least 3 rounds (about 3,000 games) daily.
The heart of our server:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 cores, 4.5 GHz)
- RAM: 64 GB DDR5
- SSD: High‐speed U.2 NVMe (800 MB)
Open Source: Code available to everyone
We believe in openness and community support. The Chess960v2 project is fully open source. This means anyone can study how it works, propose improvements, or run a similar championship on their own hardware with their own parameters.
GitHub repository: https://github.com/lavren1974/Chess960v2
Join the development, fork the project, and build your own game databases!
Why does this matter for players?
This site is a laboratory for people.
- Knowledge base: See how an ideal computer mind solves development problems in the wildest positions.
- Favorites: Registered users can save interesting setups to add new ideas to their arsenal — whether for classical chess or Fischer.
Looking ahead: Reconnaissance and the “Fog of War”
What you see now is only the beginning. Soon we will launch an online platform for real people to play, bringing an element of military strategy to chess.
Plans include:
- Reconnaissance: Instead of the opponent’s pieces you will see ordinary pawns. You will need to scout to learn where the enemy queen or bishop is hidden.
- Engine battles: A platform for programmers where engines fight under incomplete information, not knowing the opponent’s setup.
- Custom setups: Players will be able to choose their own starting positions.
Follow the experiment
Interim results, leader screenshots every 10 rounds, game archives, and live strategy discussions — all in our Telegram channel.
Join us: t.me/Chess960v2
Welcome to the new chess universe!