Starting position #425
Back-rank setup: RNQBBNKR
SP-425 · RampartGuard — A wing king (b/g) with no knight on the a- or h-file.
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 c1.
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 729.
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 14 Morozov Balance Index: 14 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +40 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 825 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): +35 → +45 → +34 → +16
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #729
- 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
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d4 (e3·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e8 (h5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to b7 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to f4 (d3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: rook to h7 (g7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to h2 (g1·26) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: queen to g7 (g5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b3 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to e8 (g6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
This position appears in course day 35
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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 c1. The bishops stand side by side on d1 and e1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, g2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. White's edge here is a wide one, +40 centipawns, and the centre trades off at once: d4 d6 c4 e5 dxe5 dxe5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.