Starting position #34
Back-rank setup: BNNQRBKR
SP-34 · RampartGuard — Both knights begin on inner files while the king sits on the wing (b/g); mirror twins stay together in this family.
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 e1 and h1, the queen on d1.
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.
The pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 919.
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 89 Morozov Balance Index: 89 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +14 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 117 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 (70 half-moves): +32 → +25 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 52): +22 cp, +8 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #919
- The king starts on g, the rooks on e and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1021 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: queen to d2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f3 (g2·24) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to g7 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to e8 (e5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g3 (h3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to e4 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: rook to g5 (g4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1510
- Mate in 3: queen to g4 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to h4 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d8 (d6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 58
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Commentary
The rooks stand on e1 and h1 with the king on g1 between them, so short castling moves the rook alone. A bishop is boxed into the corner on a1 and needs the b-pawn before its long diagonal to h8 opens. The queen is on d1, the knights on b1 and c1, the light-square bishop on f1. Among the pawns, f2 is defended by the king alone — the same square that carries this role in the classical setup. The main line of the run opens d4 d5, then h4 h5 Nc3 c5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.