Starting position #421
Back-rank setup: RNBBQNKR
SP-421 · 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 e1.
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 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 730.
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 89 Morozov Balance Index: 89 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +14 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 108 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 (44 half-moves): +37 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 49): +22 cp, +8 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #730
- 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 1251 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e6 (d5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b6 (a5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g5 (h4·21) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (d5·8) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Mate in 2: bishop to f6 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (h5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: knight to d2 (f1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Chess960 tactic on f8 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 30
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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 e1. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, 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 keeps the edge small, +14 centipawns: e4 e5 Ng3 d6 c3 Ne6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.