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How do I play Chess960 at home over the board, set up.

#1
My partner does not play Chess. And I can barely say I can. Terrible rating!, but she has shown an interest in playing 2 variants with me, Horde and Chess960, we like games when we go Caravanning. Mostly outdoors, GeoCaching, Badminton etc, but alas if it is not raining now, it means it will rain later where we live and indoor games (and a bottle or two) take over.

The benefit of the variants are being I know very little of playing them and though my Chess rating is very poor, playing the variants will give her better chances to win and have fun and then who knows, she might say "hey, maybe regular Chess could interest me"

What I was hoping to find out is: How do two people who may be without WIFI in a feild decide the starting position for 960 randomly. Is there a method?

I have tried asking google but unless I missed a dynamite link, could not find the answer.
#4
Best method: Start a 960 game vs the computer here in Lichess, and then just take the set up position to your OTB environment and do not play it here.

To prepare for those times when you have no Internet, run the above procedure a few times when you *are* within wifi range and write down the "array" (technical term there for the start position for 960 games). Then randomly pick one to play while in your caravan.
#5
Do you have to be obsessive about true randomness? How about a simple multi-step process:
1) set 2 bishops on two opposite-colored squares of your choice
2) ask the opponent to mirror your bishops and place 2 knight wherever they like
3) mirror their knights and place your queen wherever you like
4) ask the opponent to mirror your queen position
5) finish the setting by placing the king between the rooks on the 3 remaining squares on both sides
This process looks sensibly random if you let the opponent start first when you switch colors.

Maybe those who play for big money will find some way to game the above process, but it has been used for decades in the friendly games and inter-school tournaments.
#6
@kalafiorczyk said in #5:
> Do you have to be obsessive about true randomness? How about a simple multi-step process:
> 1) set 2 bishops on two opposite-colored squares of your choice
> 2) ask the opponent to mirror your bishops and place 2 knight wherever they like
> 3) mirror their knights and place your queen wherever you like
> 4) ask the opponent to mirror your queen position
> 5) finish the setting by placing the king between the rooks on the 3 remaining squares on both sides
> This process looks sensibly random if you let the opponent start first when you switch colors.
>
> Maybe those who play for big money will find some way to game the above process, but it has been used for decades in the friendly games and inter-school tournaments.

This is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks very much.
#7
According to http://www.chessvariants.org/diffsetup.dir/fischer-random-setup.html:

'David J. Coffin wrote:
I found a simpler procedure to set up Fischer Random Chess. It doesn't require computers, dice, or lookup tables:
1. Put the eight white pieces in a bag. Draw them one by one and place them on squares a1, b1, ... h1.
2. If the bishops are on the same color, look at the following pairs: a1-b1, c1-d1, and e1-f1. Swap the leftmost pair that contains a bishop.
3. If the king is not between his rooks, swap the king with the closer rook.

This mention is indeed simpler than the one with dice. All 960 positions can be the result of this method. However, not all positions have the same probability to be generated. Mathematical analysis shows that positions with the bishops on a pair a1-b1, c1-d1, e1-f1, or g1-h1 actually have half the probability to be generated than the other positions.'

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