Starting position #49
Back-rank setup: BNNBRQKR
SP-49 · 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 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.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 907.
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 51 Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 487 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): +30 → -16 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #907
- 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 86 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g5 (h4·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h4 (h1·19) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to h1 (g1·16) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·109) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to e8 (e6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to h3 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a6 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Winning blow: knight to h6 (f7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Mate in 3: pawn to g5 (g4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: bishop to h6 (e3·9) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 77
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Commentary
The queen begins on f1 and the king on g1, side by side, with a rook beyond each of them on e1 and h1. Short castling moves only the rook. The bishop in the corner on a1 needs the b-pawn before its diagonal to h8 opens; the bishop on d1 has two lines instead. Every pawn on the second rank starts defended — nothing is given away. The published line opens d4 d5, then h4 h5 Nd2 b6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.