Starting position #105
Back-rank setup: QNRBBNKR
SP-105 · RampartGuard — King pushed to the b- or g-file, knights off the edges — 144 positions here.
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 c1 and h1, the queen on a1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 857.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 24 Morozov Balance Index: 24 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +35 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 741 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +41 → -10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #857
- The king starts on g, the rooks on c and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: rook to d1 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·97) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to g2 (h3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to h6 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a2 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c2 (a4) — Chess960 specifics · 1480
- Mate in 3: rook to e7 (b7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: pawn to f8 (e7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g7 (a1·23) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g7 (a1·24) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 14
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Commentary
The rooks split wide, to c1 and h1, with the king on g1 between them, so short castling moves the rook alone. The queen begins in the corner on a1, the bishops together on d1 and e1. The knights are on b1 and f1. On the second rank, g2 is defended by the king alone. The line in the dataset opens d4 d5, then b4 h5 c4 dxc4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.