Starting position #409
Back-rank setup: RQNBBNKR
SP-409 · RampartGuard — The king starts out on a wing file, b or g, with neither knight in a corner.
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 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 745.
The engine's main line opens with e4, 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 59 Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 404 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 (59 half-moves): +24 → +3 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #745
- The king starts on g, the rooks on a 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
- Winning blow: bishop to e7 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g3 (f2·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: knight to h6 (f5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 2: rook to f8 (e8) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: pawn to a3 (a2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Winning blow: bishop to f3 (b7) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c8 (c4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to f5 (f4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Mate in 3: queen to e5 (h8) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
This position appears in course day 57
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads
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 d1 and e1, one on each colour. The pawn on g2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The engine takes the centre with e4 and then brings both knights out: e4 e5 Ne2 c6 Ne3 Ne6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.