| has gloss | eng: Transcendental chess is a chess variant invented in 1978 by Maxwell Lawrence. It inspired Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess) which is similar but has fewer starting positions. In transcendental chess the beginning positions of the pieces on the back row are randomly determined, with the one restriction that the bishops be on opposite-colored squares. There are 8,294,400 such positions in total. In Chess960 there are 960 possible starting positions, but that is because the king must be located between the rooks and both sides must have the same starting position. In transcendental chess there is no such rule so the position of one side can be any of 42 x 6! / 23 = 2880. There is no castling. On the first turn a player, instead of making a move, can transpose any of two pieces on the back... |