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What happens if the chessboard is kept with black square on right hand side instead of white square? I think that the notations will change.

In the new positon, the White king will be positioned on a white square and the Black king will be positioned on a black square. The White queen will be positioned on a black square and the Black queen will be positioned on a white square.

Why this is considered a wrong placing of the chess board? Addtionally, does White or Black have an advantage, and will strategies and tactics change?

Rewan Demontay
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Prashant Akerkar
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    This plays out like any other chess game, provided black goes first. Everything you've done to the game equates to swapping the colors. Let black go first and it's the same game as always. Otherwise it's a different game. – candied_orange Sep 02 '20 at 01:59
  • Game play won't change for computers at all. But for human, it might have psychological effects. A french player might trade the light bishop off carelessly. – jf328 Sep 02 '20 at 08:31
  • What do you mean "what happens?" Nothing happens. This isn't allowed by the rules of chess, so it would never happen. Bit of a strange question... – user91988 Sep 02 '20 at 18:23
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    @candied_orange Why would black going first result in it playing like other chess games? – Acccumulation Sep 02 '20 at 20:42
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    @Acccumulation because the queen goes on her own color. Make her go on the other color AND play the other colors turn and you get the same game as always. Just with the colors swapped. – candied_orange Sep 02 '20 at 22:34
  • Playing privately, you can do with your board what you like. Any rotation, any reflection will result in an equivalent position. The white king will be on e1, nothing happens to the notation, it will be confusing. In tournament chess, the position of the board is fixed by FIDE Laws of Chess, see answer of @Glorfindel. – Christian H. Kuhn Sep 09 '20 at 18:45

3 Answers3

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It's wrong because the rules say so:

2.1 The chessboard is composed of an 8 x 8 grid of 64 equal squares alternately light (the ‘white’ squares) and dark (the ‘black’ squares).

The chessboard is placed between the players in such a way that the near corner square to the right of the player is white.

Of course, those rules are based on what has been common practice for a very long time. Apparently, an incorrectly placed board happens often enough to warrant a rule for what to do when that happens:

7.2.2 If during a game it is found that the chessboard has been placed contrary to Article 2.1, the game shall continue but the position reached must be transferred to a correctly placed chessboard.

Since the pieces have the same position relative to each other, it doesn't affect strategy and tactics. Notation won't change; the column of the starting positions of the queens is still column 'd'. If you have a board with numbers/letters, it's even easier to spot the problem.

Glorfindel
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  • Thank you. By this Chessboard location, the players strategies & tactics are not going to change as well as no advantage for white or black?. In that case, one can place the Chessboard in this location and start the game? – Prashant Akerkar Aug 31 '20 at 18:19
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    If White still makes the first move, there's no difference at all. That's why rule 7.2.2 says "hey, you put the board wrong, but you can still continue with the game, since it doesn't influence the gameplay". – Glorfindel Aug 31 '20 at 18:21
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    Thank you. To summarise, this chessboard location is not going to change the tactics or strategies of both the players neither the notations. – Prashant Akerkar Aug 31 '20 at 18:36
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    @PrashantAkerkar Correct. The colour of the tiles is completely irrelevant to the game. If you decide to paint the white tiles red and the black ones green, the movements of the pieces don't change. You could even make all tiles the same colour, assuming you have marked the borders of each tile so you can still find the tiles. The colours are an aid, but for informal games you can play on anything vaguely resembling a chess board. It just won't be a regulatory board. As long as it has 8x8 tiles, you can play (informal) chess on it. – Mast Sep 01 '20 at 05:47
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    @Mast I'm now thinking of a way to combine a 9x9 go game with chess on the same board. Years ago, me and some friends already developed a variation on Bughouse where one board started playing chess and the other one draughts, so you could drop draughtsmen your teammate captured on the chessboard and vice versa. – Glorfindel Sep 01 '20 at 05:53
  • Would I be correct in assuming that when the position is transferred, it should be reflected, and the score sheets marked to match the reflected positions, if the queens started on their own color squares, but not if the kings started on their own color squares? – supercat Sep 01 '20 at 15:39
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    @supercat the OP is talking about a situation where the pieces are correctly placed (i.e. from White's perspective, the queen starts left of the king). So no reflection is needed. Score sheets are irrelevant. – Glorfindel Sep 01 '20 at 16:06
  • @supercat: If the position were mirrored, I believe you'd follow 7.3 instead, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out what exactly they mean by "with colors reversed." If I'm interpreting that line correctly, then it means you would continue the game, but only if it took at least 10 moves to identify the mirroring. If you figure it out sooner, then you cancel the game and start over. – Kevin Sep 01 '20 at 16:26
  • @Kevin: Normally, the bishop next to white's king is on a white square. If the board is improperly rotated, the bishop next to white's king may be either be on the right color square but in the wrong place, or in the right place but on the wrong color square. – supercat Sep 01 '20 at 16:34
  • Am I correct in understanding that once the mistake is noticed, everyone moves the pieces to a new board? If so, what happens with the clock during this time? – Jetpack Sep 01 '20 at 17:09
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    @Glorfindel : Randall's done it (go+chess): https://xkcd.com/1287/ – Eric Towers Sep 01 '20 at 17:32
  • @Jetpack: In cases where the side on move would become momentarily unable to play because of factors that are not his fault, both clocks would be immediately stopped if practical. Otherwise, before resuming play, the clocks would be adjusted to reflect the times they would have shown had they been stopped. I think the rule would apply in this case just as it would if e.g. the building was evacuated because of a fire alarm but play was resumed after the fire department gave an "all clear". – supercat Sep 07 '20 at 20:07
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I don't think there's anything in the game that's strictly tied to the colors of the squares. You can still number the ranks and files from the bottom-left corner and e.g. Bishops would start on opposite colors than usual, but the diagonal moves still work the same.

Though, if you set the board up using the mnemonic that the queens are placed on squares matching their color, i.e. white queen on a white square, black queen on a black square, then the setup would be different and the game along with it. But not by much, what you'd end up is this:

enter image description here

That's just the regular starting position flipped. Since all moves are also symmetrical with regard to left and right, it still technically makes no difference other than that now you'd have to number the squares starting from the lower right to match the notation of a regular chess game. (Counting from lower right, the kings here are at e1 and e8 as in a normal game.)

(Castling is the one move which works differently to the left than to the right, but it's defined by the sides where the king/queen start at, and anyway basically reduces down to "king takes two steps and the rook jumps to the square the king passed" which is direction-independent.)

ilkkachu
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    I don't think it's true to say "it makes no difference". It's theoretically the same game, but flipped. But in practice, both players will have their play strongly affected by where they expect pieces to be, patterns learnt etc. Like, by habit protecting F2 more than C2, even though in this variant, that's the wrong way around. – Steve Bennett Sep 01 '20 at 23:24
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    @SteveBennett I think it's unlikely that players with enough experience to have those habits could possibly make the mistake of putting their kings on the wrong side, no matter what the mnemonic says. – Misha Lavrov Sep 02 '20 at 00:22
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    Yeah, me too. Or more likely, as has happened with me OTB, the K and Q are flipped, you realise after a few moves, and flip them back. No one ever continues with "oh I guess my K is on D1 now" :) – Steve Bennett Sep 02 '20 at 03:05
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    @SteveBennett, yes, you're right; edited to say "technically no difference". But I also don't think it's very likely to happen except with beginners. – ilkkachu Sep 02 '20 at 08:07
  • We had one where only one side's king was placed incorrectly. – Joshua Sep 02 '20 at 18:20
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It makes no difference at all in any way, even if the kings and queens are reversed left to right, or if Black goes first. It's just convention, the thought process, how to play, etc. It's identical other than the callout above about psychologically. Which bishop means more in the French is the example cited, but that's just because that player has that "rule" memorized The reasoning is no different, however.

Rewan Demontay
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phil
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