Starting position #0
Back-rank setup: BBQNNRKR
SP-0 · RampartGuard — King on the wing (b/g) with both knights on inner files.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: e2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 959.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 72 Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 279 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (53 half-moves): +28 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #959
- The king starts on g, the rooks on f and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 208 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: knight to h6 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to a3 (a2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f6 (a1·23) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: pawn to g6 (h5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (e3·17) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (e3·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Winning blow: queen to e7 (a3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: rook to d1 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to g6 (h6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d3 (c3) — Chess960 specifics · 2170
This position appears in course day 31
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Commentary
White's king begins on g1, already standing on the square short castling would take it to, so that move here shifts only the rook, from h1 to f1. The dark-square bishop is boxed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal, unlocked by the b-pawn and running the length of the board to h8. Its partner on b1 works the light squares, with the c-pawn opening the line that ends on h7. Both knights start centrally, on d1 and e1, each with two squares waiting on the third rank. The pawn on e2 is the one square in the setup that begins with no defender at all. The engine's main line opens with c4, and the reply c5 mirrors it; after that both sides push wing pawns — h4 h5 b3 b6 — before either touches the centre.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.