Embarassment and Frustration

I don't know what to say that you haven't already said yourself.  With the knight sitting there on Ne5 you can see perfectly well (with even 3 seconds of analysis) where he can go to next.  At that point a simple move protects that square, and then it does start to become a pointless move for white as you develop while threatenting his knight and forcing him back.  And needless to say, he could have done the same thing to you even if he were playing black, as oblivious as you were to it.

But as a general rule in 960 you size up the board for a few minutes before your first move to see obvious threats (existing reciprocally on both sides)  and come up with a general strategy for the opening, thinking a few moves down the road (as opposed to going on autopilot with some known opening as in standard.)  So you plan and think ahead of time in 960 and less so as your general plan falls into place.  My personal inclination even in standard would be to think a lot in the opening, except that I don't as people wonder what your problem is (as why aren't you just going through the motions like everyone else in the opening in standard.)

That's the best I can do.

"I was making moves that I thought would be normal development in a normal board setup."

There's part of the problem... it's not a normal setup. Try to discover how it's different before you touch a piece.

I hate 960

 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I get the impression that the jumbled nature should lead players to take a lot more time before even thinking about moving.

Is there any order in which a player should look at the pieces? For instance, should I look at where my king is placed, followed by queen etc... has there been any theory as to how to analyze the opening position?

I can only talk about some things I think about - those long diagonals for instance, where it seems like every game a bishop or queen sitting in the corner, and controls an entire diagonal just by advancing a pawn.  That's something you don't see very often in standard, so in using the analysis board I try to figure out how that will effect things down the road.  Also, right away I remind myself what the castled position will look like in this game,  and where I might want to castle, and where my opponent will probably want to castle, or whether I want to castle at all.  This is all obvious stuff, imo.  The main thing is, work through some combinations on the analysis board, anticipating what your opponent  wants to do as well, and come up with a plan for yourself.

edit:

Imagine it was a standard game and somehow it got to this point - a chess 960 opening position. (Remember: "anything's possible in standard chess".)  And ask yourself, "What would I do in standard if confronted with this position".

hehe, that is a cute game!

Another thing I definitely do is see if they're opportunites to bait the opponent with "obvious" moves for him to make as there are LOTS of opportunities for that in 960, even for an opponent who's played it some.  Any sort of move that your opponent will make without analysis because it looks so good, although you've already looked a few moves down the road and have a trap set.

I can't give a more in depth analysis of this setup because the  analyze button brings up a standard board config.

a better move have been moving the knight on d1, so then you wouldn't be trapped.

oh, and i've never played chess960

Good comments, so far. I'm thinking that things I should be thinking of right away are:

1. Are there any pawns that are not protected in the initial set up? (this was my mistake, and I will NEVER let it happen again)
2. Where are my kings and rooks placed for castling? What's the quickest route to castling?
3. What diagonals do my bishops/queen control with a pawn move or quick fianchetto?
4. What squares would the knights control after their first move and what are their optimal initial moves?
5. Do any pawn moves open any pieces to a quick/unstoppable attack?

Anybody else got any ideas? I'd love to make a must-do checklist for players to think of when they are analyzing their initial position.

@krislwright

I can't believe you resigned one move from mate, should have rewarded him for finding the mate in 3.

I just won a game in which my opponent was dragging a lost position for 10 moves only to resign 1 move away from mate. What an unbelievebly rude behaviour, but ooh, I made good use of that chatbox.

@krislwright, you don't have to feel embarrased or/and frustrated. I can tell you that even a Chess GM lost a Chess960 game on 8 moves in the last CCM8 (at Mainz).

One thing you should always bear in mind is that Chess960 is different from classic chess just because in the classic chess there is such quantity of theory lines (already tested and proved) that you don't even think on the first moves... and this is when you really need to be careful in Chess960. As someone else posted earlier, you must take your time on the first moves looking at the set up, locating the weak squares, planning how to castle, how to manage to control the centre...etc. (any other strategies used for classic chess, applies here too, the only thing that changes is the way you get into that)

I recommend you to take a look at this thread:

On the Opening in Chess960 (FRC)

there is also a thread corresponding to that Starting Position:

SP - 679 QRBKNNRB 

please note that there are 4 weak squares on this SP!, (compared to 1 on the classic chess set up) and the dangerous diagonal confronting bishop / queen.

I am sure that once you have clear the basic principles for a good opening you will enjoy chess960 even more than classic chess!

PS, if you don't mind, I will include that game in the corresponding SP thread (anonymously of course, and just to provide an example)

@kokino

Yeah, man. Absolutely. I don't mind at all. If someone can learn from my mistakes, then go right ahead.

@rnunesmagalhaes

Thanks for not adding anything relevant to the discussion, at all.

kris.  I say this with a lot of affection...don't you think it was a cute game?  If it happened to me I would have laughed in bewilderment. 

The games that hurt are when you've really achieved an advantage and then it slips through your fingers.  This one is just...amusing, no?   I have a chess960 game in which I gave away a pawn in the first two moves...yes, it irritated me...but I also knew it was my own fault for not looking carefully at the options my opponent was presenting. 960 requires chess alertness from ready set go.

dear sir,  A cat closed its eye  and told "oh! the earth went dark !!" . I am sorry to say that you  are the cat. open your eyes and ideas. please donot blame the game.

K.Thirukkalathy

Fide Arbiter,

Chess 960 tournament organizer,960 player.

I dont like 960, but I have experienced something similar (got mated in 3 moves or so) in a some weird-opening themed team match in regular chess. The lesson is - be alert when you are off the regular track.

 Ummm... yeah. Point one: I clearly put the blame on myself. Please reread my initial post. Point two: I wrote this post to get a discussion going of what people new to chess960 should be thinking of and the dangers of having an auto-drive mindset that most of us have in the opening because we play what we are familiar with and have studied, and you can't do that in 960. Point three: What the hell does "Chess 960 tournament organizer, 960 player mean?" Are you trying to give yourself some official designation that doesn't exist? I can start a tournament in about 15 seconds on this website and then write my name as, "krislwright: chess tournament organizer extrordinaire Esq." but that doesn't mean a damn thing. Point four: what are you babbling about?!

Please add to the discussion. Don't be idiotic.