Starting position #417
Back-rank setup: BRNBQNKR
SP-417 · 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 e1.
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 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 731.
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 37 Morozov Balance Index: 37 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +30 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 607 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 (59 half-moves): +33 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #731
- 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 98 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to h3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e4 (g3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f7 (e5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to f6 (g6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: knight to e8 (f6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to c8 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d8 (h4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: pawn to h7 (h6·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: queen to g4 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 2290
This position appears in course day 25
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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 closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on d1. On the second rank, g2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen is on e1, the knights on c1 and f1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and the line runs e4 h5 b4 e5 c4 Ne7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.