Starting position #432
Back-rank setup: BBRNNQKR
SP-432 · RampartGuard — King on the wing (b/g) with both knights on inner files.
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 c1 and h1, the queen on f1.
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.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: d2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 719.
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 95 Morozov Balance Index: 95 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +3 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 45 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 54.0% (95% CI 40.4–67.0%).
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +15 → -7 → +3 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 52): +9 cp, +6 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #719
- The king starts on g, the rooks on c 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: queen to e8 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a6 (f1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a5 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to g2 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: bishop to f5 (b1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to g2 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Mate in 2: queen to h6 (g6) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f7 (a2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: queen to g7 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on e7 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 8
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Commentary
The engine puts this start at +3 centipawns — about as close to level as a game of chess begins. The king starts on g1, already on the square short castling would give him, so that castling moves the rook alone. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. Among the pawns, d2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on f1 beside her king, and after d4 c5 dxc5 a rook recaptures: Rxc5 e4 h5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.