Starting position #726
Back-rank setup: RKBNQBNR
SP-726 · 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 b1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on e1.
From b1 the king makes the longest journey Chess960 allows when castling short: five squares to g1.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The pawn on c2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 422.
The engine's main line opens with e4, 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 59 Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 391 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +33 → +24 → +11 → +4
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #422
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a 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: pawn to f5 (e4·37) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e5 (e1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b4 (d2·8) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to d7 (d1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to g7 (g3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: pawn to c6 (d5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f5 (f1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f8 (f2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 2: queen to a7 (a5·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
This position appears in course day 115
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Commentary
The king begins on b1, and short castling takes him five squares across the board to g1. The bishops are on c1 and f1, the knights on d1 and g1. The pawn on c2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen is on e1, the rooks in the corners on a1 and h1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and the line runs e4 e5 Nc3 f5 exf5 Nf6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.