Let Your Back Row Slide: A Chess960 Throwdown
Engineering Building, MUN. St. John's
Date: Sunday, April 12, 2026.
Venue: Engineering Cafeteria, MUN. St. Johns, NL. S.J. Carew Building. (Main entrance level)
Important!!!!
This is a 5-round, UNRATED 10+2 Chess960 tournament. Not quite the same as standard chess. CFC membership is not required to play.
Time Control: 10 minutes + 2 second increments
Check-in: 1:30pm
Round 1: 2pm
Rounds will continue with a short break of 15 minutes between round 3 and 4. Hopefully we can finish the event around 6pm.
Entry fee: $15
Entry can be paid with cash onsite or by e-transfer to stevemartinish@gmail.com
Also known as Fischer Random or "Freestyle" chess, Chess960 is one of the most popular chess variants (variation of standard chess). Random positions will be generated for each round. So there will be five random positions.
Pieces are set up randomly on the first and eighth ranks, but the Kings must be between the rooks so that castling still works.
Castling rules are a little complicated and SHOULD BE REVIEWED if you are not familiar with them (see link below). I will do a short casting demonstration at the event to clarify casting rules. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/fischerandom
(This will also be the site where I randomly generated positions prior to each round. )
Prizes:
1st place: 30%
2nd place: 15%
Top junior: 15%
Top U1700: 15%
NLCA: 25%
Note: if there is a tie, prizes will be split (unless tying participants are willing to play a playoff and organizer agrees).
Tournament Organizer: Steve Martin
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at stevew83@gmail.com
What's with the weird tournament name?
Good question. It is a reference to a Canadian rap song from 1989 called 'Let your Backbone Slide'. I thought it sounded fun.