Starting position #1
Back-rank setup: BQNBNRKR
SP-1 · RampartGuard — The king starts out on a wing file, b or g, with neither knight in a corner.
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 b1.
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: d2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 955.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 75 Morozov Balance Index: 75 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +19 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 254 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 (50 half-moves): +34 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #955
- 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 691 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to e8 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f6 (e5·24) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g4 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: bishop to g7 (c3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d5 (f3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to g6 (e4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Mate in 2: rook to g7 (f7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: queen to d1 (b3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Winning blow: queen to e8 (h5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on g5 (g6) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 106
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Commentary
The king starts on g1 and the rooks on f1 and h1, so short castling costs the king no move at all: only the h1 rook travels, landing on f1. A bishop is locked in the corner on a1, and the b-pawn is the single key to its diagonal, which runs all the way to h8. The second bishop stands on d1 between the knights, with the c-pawn and the e-pawn opening its two lines, the longer one ending on h5. The queen is pushed out to b1, further from the centre than the classical setup places her. The pawn on d2 starts undefended. The engine's main line begins h4, answered by h5, and continues b4 b5 e3 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.