Starting position #144
Back-rank setup: BBNRNQKR
SP-144 · 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 f1.
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.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 815.
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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 441 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 (60 half-moves): +42 → +20 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #815
- 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
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f6 (a1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to b4 (c3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to h2 (g1·14) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g2 (e1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: king to g2 (g1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to f1 (g2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: rook to h4 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Mate in 2: rook to g6 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: rook to g1 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
This position appears in course day 18
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Commentary
Queen and king begin next to each other on f1 and g1, and both castling moves need only one piece to travel: the king is already on g1, the rook already on d1. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8. Every pawn on the second rank starts defended. The knights hold c1 and e1. The engine's main line opens c4 c5, then e4 e5 b3 b6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.