Rapid & Freestyle Showdown

December 14th, 2025

St. John's, NL. MUN Engineering Cafeteria

Rapid & Freestyle Showdown is a one-day event which will include three separate tournaments: a 5 round bughouse (5+0), 4 round Freestyle-Chess960 10+2, and a 5 round rapid 15+10. All events will be unrated so no membership is required.

Register for one tournament, two, or all three! Registration will be accepted onsite. See below for check-in times and entry fee amounts. 

Date: Sunday, December 14

Checkin: 9:00am for Bughouse.

9:30–10:30— Bughouse (5 rounds, 5+0)

Entry Fee: FREE.
UNRATED. CFC Membership not required
Players can sign up as a team or solo players can be paired on the day of the event.
Info: Bughouse (or doubles chess) is played in teams of two. One teammate plays as White and the other as Black. Teams pass captured pieces to their teammate who can drop a piece on the board as an alternative to moving a piece.
Prizes: to be determined

10:30am check-in for chess960. 

11:00–1:00 — Chess960 (4 rounds, 10+2)

Entry Fee: $10
UNRATED. CFC Membership not required
Also known as Fischer Random or "Freestyle" chess. Random positions will be generated for each round. So there will be four random positions.
Castling rules are a little complicated and SHOULD BE REVIEWED if you are not familiar with them. Provided below and also at the following link. I will try to do a short demo at the event.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/fischerandom?kpage=51

Prizes:
1st place: 50%
2nd place: 25%
Top Junior: 25%
players can only win one prize.

1:00–2:00 — Lunch

Checkin for Rapid: 1:45

2:00–6:30 — Swiss Rapid (5 rounds, 15+5)
Entry Fee: $20
UNRATED. CFC Membership not required
Prizes
1st place: 40%
2nd place: 20%
Best performance: 20% (though the tournament is unrated, quick ratings will be used and computer calculation will decide the prize winner based on performance)
Top Junior: 20%

players can only win one prize.



Quick Rules for Fischerandom Chess (aka Chess960 or Freestyle Chess)

  1. Fischerandom Chess is played with a normal chess board and pieces. All rules of Orthodox Chess apply except as otherwise noted.

  2. The initial configuration of the chess pieces is determined randomly for White, and the black pieces are placed equal and opposite the white pieces. The piece placement is subject to the constraints:

    1. the king is placed somewhere between the two rooks, and

    2. the bishops are on opposite colors.

    3. pawns are placed on each player's second rank as in Orthodox Chess.

    There are 960 such configurations.

  3. Castling, as in Orthodox chess, is an exceptional move involving both the King and Rook. Castling is a valid move under these circumstances:

    1. Neither King nor Rook has moved.

    2. The King is not in check before or after castling.

    3. All squares between the castling King's initial and final squares (including the final square), and all of the squares between the castling Rook's initial and final squares (including the final square), must be vacant except for the King and Rook.

    4. No square through which the King moves is under enemy attack.

    The movement of the King and Rook during castling should be easily understood by players of Orthodox Chess:

    1. When castling on the h-side (White's right side), the King ends on g1 (g8), and the rook on f1 (f8), just like the O-O move in Orthodox chess.

    2. When castling on the a-side (White's left side), the King ends on c1 (c8), and the rook on d1 (d8), just like the O-O-O move in Orthodox chess.

    3. Sometimes the King will not need to move; sometimes the Rook will not need to move. That's OK.

  4. The object is to checkmate the opponent's King. Have fun!