Starting position #402
Back-rank setup: BRQNNBKR
SP-402 · 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 b1 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 743.
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 96 Morozov Balance Index: 96 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +8 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 38 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (27 half-moves): +20 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 53): +21 cp, +13 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #743
- 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 1171 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b6 (c5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (b1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to b6 (b2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to d6 (e4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to d5 (g2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: king to h1 (g2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: rook to g6 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: queen to e5 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g7 (g1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Mate in 3: rook to h8 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
This position appears in course day 68
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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. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on f1. Among the pawns, a2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on c1, the knights on d1 and e1. The engine finds very little here — +8 centipawns — and the line runs c4 c5 b3 b6 h4 h5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.