Starting position #743
Back-rank setup: RKBNNQRB
SP-743 · RampartGuard — A wing king (b/g) with no knight on the a- or h-file.
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 g1, the queen on f1.
From b1 the king makes the longest journey Chess960 allows when castling short: five squares to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 402.
The engine's main line opens with a4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 69 Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 289 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): +26 → +7 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #402
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 250 days
Puzzles from this position
- Mate in 1: knight to c7 — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Winning blow: rook to c3 (a3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to c1 (b1·13) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: queen to b3 — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e3 (c1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to a8 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: queen to d5 (e5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (g3·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: bishop to b6 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: queen to b6 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 7
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Commentary
The king begins on b1, and short castling takes him five squares across the board to g1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on c1. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on f1, the knights side by side on d1 and e1, the second rook in the corner on a1. The engine's first move is the a-pawn, and a rook recaptures at the end: a4 a5 f4 g5 fxg5 Rxg5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.