Starting position #438
Back-rank setup: RNBNQBKR
SP-438 · 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 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 f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: c2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 710.
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 26 Morozov Balance Index: 26 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 707 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 (54 half-moves): +25 → +20 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #710
- 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 923 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e8 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b4 (e1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h5 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to d2 (e2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (e4·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (f4·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to c7 (a5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to g6 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 3: bishop to e6 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to a2 (b2) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 88
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Commentary
The king starts 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. Among the pawns, c2 is the one that begins without a defender. The bishops are on c1 and f1, the knights on b1 and d1 — and because both can reach c3, the engine's third half-move needs a letter: Nbc3. The line runs d4 d5 Nbc3 Ne6 Qd2 c6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.