Starting position #405
Back-rank setup: RQBBNNKR
SP-405 · 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 a1 and h1, the queen on b1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
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 746.
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 51 Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 476 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +36 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #746
- The king starts on g, the rooks on a and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 951 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d4 (c3·10) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (d3·41) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to e4 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f2 (f1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to b1 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to f2 (g2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to f8 (f7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: knight to d3 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: queen to f7 (b7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Mate in 3: queen to c6 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
This position appears in course day 63
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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 rooks sit in the corners, a1 and h1, the queen on b1. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, one on each colour. On the second rank, f2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The engine takes the centre with d4 and Black answers in kind: d4 d5 c3 c6 e4 e5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.