Starting position #6
Back-rank setup: QNBNRBKR
SP-6 · 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 a1.
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 950.
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 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 491 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +39 → -6 → -6 → -12
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #950
- 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 1131 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to c7 (c1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f3 (g2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (d5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g6 (d3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Winning blow: rook to c8 (c1·13) — Chess960 specifics · 1470
- Mate in 3: king to g2 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: king to g1 (h2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (g4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on a6 (b5) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 176
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Commentary
With the queen on a1 and the king on g1, the two most important pieces begin at opposite ends of the rank. Short castling costs the king nothing: it already stands on its square, and only the h1 rook travels to f1. The dark-square bishop on c1 opens along the b-pawn and the d-pawn, reaching h6 on its longer line; the light-square bishop on f1 uses the e-pawn and the g-pawn. The pawn on c2 is the one that starts without a defender. The engine opens d4, met by Nbc6, and the line continues c3 d5 e4 dxe4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.