Starting position #393
Back-rank setup: QRNBBNKR
SP-393 · 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 b1 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 761.
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 86 Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 137 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): +28 → 0 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 50): +18 cp, +3 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #761
- The king starts on g, the rooks on b and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 11 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to a8 — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (a1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: rook to e1 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to f2 (e1·18) — Chess960 specifics · 1470
- Mate in 3: queen to e8 (a4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (h5·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1650
- Winning blow: bishop to e5 (g3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Chess960 tactic on f8 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 32
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Commentary
The king begins on g1, already on the square short castling would give him, so that castling moves the rook alone. The bishops stand side by side on d1 and e1, one on each colour. On the second rank, g2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen starts in the far corner on a1, the knights on c1 and f1. The engine keeps the edge small, +15 centipawns: h4 b5 d4 d6 Nd3 h5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.