Answers.Body: <blockquote>
  <p>Get a top chess engine, make it play a game and stop at some legal position in the mid-game where White has a slight +0.1 / +0.2 advantage (just like the one that exists at the start of a normal game).</p>
  <p>Then have players play from there.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>There is a common variant which is quite close to that and which occasionally has tournaments. These tournaments are called &quot;Themed Tournaments&quot;. Rather than have the engine make some semi random moves to determine the starting position a position arising from a standard opening is used. For instance these could range from the queenless position arising from a full Berlin Defence to a Kings Indian Defence to a Fried Liver Attack.</p>
  <p>All games in the tournament start from the same standard position and players have the chance to play both the white and black sides of the opening in the course of the tournament. <a href="https://lichess.org/team/themed-chess-tournaments" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lichess run these tournaments</a> online and possibly other platforms as well.</p>
  <p>These tournaments, arising as they do from standard positions in known openings are uncontroversial and well defined. What you suggest is rather less well defined and begs a lot of questions like - which engines should be used?, how many moves into the middlegame should the starting position be?, what opening book should the engine use (if any)? In short it would require a lot more work to make it into an attractive alternative to the already existing themed tournaments.</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Is this an actual chess mode? Has something like this ever been considered for official games?</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>No. The idea needs more work and proof of concept (some actual competitive games or tournaments)</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-01-01T22:55:30.927Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2024-01-01T22:55:30.927Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brian Towers
Body: <p>Inspired by this question: <a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/43216">Why did Magnus Carlsen not play the World Chess Championship in 2023?</a></p>
  <p>It's not the first time I've heard about GMs (not just Magnus Carlsen) being tired of the current state of Classical chess and how it's too reliant on preparing a lot of opening variations.<br />
  So I wonder... Is there a chess mode that just <em>skips</em> the opening?</p>
  <p><strong>Get a top chess engine, make it play a game and stop at some legal position in the mid-game where White has a slight +0.1 / +0.2 advantage</strong> (just like the one that exists at the start of a normal game).</p>
  <p><strong>Then have players play from there.</strong></p>
  <p>Same rules, same everything, only difference being someone else already played the opening phase for them. They could be given some minutes to study the position, or none at all; the system could be tuned to make the position as uncommon / unplayed / off-the-book as deemed convenient.</p>
  <p>I think it could work as an alternative to rapid for tie-breaks. See how they perform when thrown into a position they haven't planned themselves, how quickly they can adapt to the material and position they got.</p>
  <p><strong>Is this an actual chess mode? Has something like this ever been considered for official games?</strong></p>
  <p>N.B. I could understand if someone thought &quot;this is just a chess puzzle&quot;, but it isn't. A chess puzzle always has some kind of achievable goal: a mate in two, a short sequence of movements gaining a piece or a positional advantage. There's always a &quot;win&quot; to be found. In other words, it's not a +0.1 position, but more like a +5.4 position where you have to find the movement(s) to consolidate that advantage. A (modern) chess engine would never evaluate a puzzle position to be just +0.1, because then it wouldn't be a puzzle, just a normal position.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-11-10T13:09:23.963Z
Comments.Text: Feel free to edit formatting / tags into something more appropriate, if needed. Thanks!
Comments.UserDisplayName: walen
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-11-11T15:12:22.183Z
Comments.Text: +0.1 according to whom?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Comic Sans Seraphim
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-11-12T09:11:21.803Z
Comments.Text: @ComicSansSeraphim If you mean the evaluation of the position to play: according to the chess engine that played the game up until that position, obviously. _"But the human players may find movement sequences the engine didn't take into account!"_ Well, it's been years already that the odds of something like that happening are quiiite low, but if one of the players manages to do so... good for them!
Comments.UserDisplayName: walen
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-11-12T09:19:29.513Z
Comments.Text: To downvoters: this is not Meta. This is not a [meta-tag:discussion] question where you vote to show agreement / disagreement. If you find the question is lacking detail, or is badly written, or is not useful, then a comment pointing what to improve, while not mandatory, would still be much appreciated -- but please do not downvote just because you don't like the idea. Thanks.
Comments.UserDisplayName: walen
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-11-16T12:45:27.360Z
Comments.Text: Why not just play chess960 then?
Comments.UserDisplayName: koedem
Tags: <opening><chess-variants><middlegame><preparation>
Title: Does this chess variant exist, and has it ever been considered for official tournaments?
ThreadText: # Does this chess variant exist, and has it ever been considered for official tournaments?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2023-11-10)
  
  Inspired by this question: [Why did Magnus Carlsen not play the World Chess Championship in 2023?](https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/43216)
  
  It's not the first time I've heard about GMs (not just Magnus Carlsen) being tired of the current state of Classical chess and how it's too reliant on preparing a lot of opening variations.  
  So I wonder... Is there a chess mode that just *skips* the opening?
  
  **Get a top chess engine, make it play a game and stop at some legal position in the mid-game where White has a slight +0.1 / +0.2 advantage** (just like the one that exists at the start of a normal game).
  
  **Then have players play from there.**
  
  Same rules, same everything, only difference being someone else already played the opening phase for them. They could be given some minutes to study the position, or none at all; the system could be tuned to make the position as uncommon / unplayed / off-the-book as deemed convenient.
  
  I think it could work as an alternative to rapid for tie-breaks. See how they perform when thrown into a position they haven't planned themselves, how quickly they can adapt to the material and position they got.
  
  **Is this an actual chess mode? Has something like this ever been considered for official games?**
  
  N.B. I could understand if someone thought "this is just a chess puzzle", but it isn't. A chess puzzle always has some kind of achievable goal: a mate in two, a short sequence of movements gaining a piece or a positional advantage. There's always a "win" to be found. In other words, it's not a +0.1 position, but more like a +5.4 position where you have to find the movement(s) to consolidate that advantage. A (modern) chess engine would never evaluate a puzzle position to be just +0.1, because then it wouldn't be a puzzle, just a normal position.
  
  **Tags:** opening, chess-variants, middlegame, preparation
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Feel free to edit formatting / tags into something more appropriate, if needed. Thanks!  
  > **username_1**: +0.1 according to whom?  
  > **username_0**: @ComicSansSeraphim If you mean the evaluation of the position to play: according to the chess engine that played the game up until that position, obviously. _"But the human players may find movement sequences the engine didn't take into account!"_ Well, it's been years already that the odds of something like that happening are quiiite low, but if one of the players manages to do so... good for them!  
  > **username_0**: To downvoters: this is not Meta. This is not a [meta-tag:discussion] question where you vote to show agreement / disagreement. If you find the question is lacking detail, or is badly written, or is not useful, then a comment pointing what to improve, while not mandatory, would still be much appreciated -- but please do not downvote just because you don't like the idea. Thanks.  
  > **username_2**: Why not just play chess960 then?  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2024-01-01. Score: 1
  
  > Get a top chess engine, make it play a game and stop at some legal position in the mid-game where White has a slight +0.1 / +0.2 advantage (just like the one that exists at the start of a normal game).
  >
  > Then have players play from there.
  
  There is a common variant which is quite close to that and which occasionally has tournaments. These tournaments are called "Themed Tournaments". Rather than have the engine make some semi random moves to determine the starting position a position arising from a standard opening is used. For instance these could range from the queenless position arising from a full Berlin Defence to a Kings Indian Defence to a Fried Liver Attack.
  
  All games in the tournament start from the same standard position and players have the chance to play both the white and black sides of the opening in the course of the tournament. [Lichess run these tournaments](https://lichess.org/team/themed-chess-tournaments) online and possibly other platforms as well.
  
  These tournaments, arising as they do from standard positions in known openings are uncontroversial and well defined. What you suggest is rather less well defined and begs a lot of questions like - which engines should be used?, how many moves into the middlegame should the starting position be?, what opening book should the engine use (if any)? In short it would require a lot more work to make it into an attractive alternative to the already existing themed tournaments.
  
  > Is this an actual chess mode? Has something like this ever been considered for official games?
  
  No. The idea needs more work and proof of concept (some actual competitive games or tournaments)
  
  
  ---
  
  