Starting position #114
Back-rank setup: BNQRNBKR
SP-114 · 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 d1 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: a2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 839.
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 93 Morozov Balance Index: 93 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +11 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 72 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +47 → +14 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 53): +24 cp, +13 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #839
- The king starts on g, the rooks on d 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 g6 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to g4 — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: pawn to d7 (c6·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to d5 (d2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f7 (g6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: queen to h7 (h6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Mate in 2: rook to d7 (d1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to e4 (g5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Winning blow: bishop to h5 (e2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Mate in 3: queen to f6 (e7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 97
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Commentary
Short castling moves only the rook, because the king already stands on g1; long castling moves only the king, because the rook already stands on d1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1, its diagonal to h8 waiting on the b-pawn. The pawn on a2 begins with no defender at all, and f2 has only the king. The queen is on c1, the second bishop on f1. The engine's main line opens d4 d5, then b3 b6 c4 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.