Starting position #48
Back-rank setup: BBNNRQKR
SP-48 · 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 e1 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 911.
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 61 Morozov Balance Index: 61 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 379 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +43 → +34 → +4 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #911
- The king starts on g, the rooks on e and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 545 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (b5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to e2 (f1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Mate in 2: queen to h6 (d2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a7 (b8·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: rook to f6 (f1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to h8 (h7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 2: knight to f6 (e4·13) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (e5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Mate in 3: rook to g3 (h3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2210
This position appears in course day 115
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Commentary
The queen starts on f1 with the king right beside her on g1, which is as close to the classical arrangement as this side of the board gets. Short castling moves the rook alone, from h1 to f1, because the king is already there. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1, its diagonal to h8 waiting on the b-pawn; the second works the light squares from b1. The pawn on d2 begins with no defender. The engine's main line opens d4 c5, then e3 e6 b3 h5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.