Starting position #935
Back-rank setup: RKBRNQNB
SP-935 · 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 d1, 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 18.
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 0 Morozov Balance Index: 0 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +78 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 956 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 60.0% (95% CI 46.2–72.4%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +82 → +75 → +39 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #18
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a and d
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 821 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f1 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g5 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d1 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to d4 (h8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to b7 (b3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e5 (f3·19) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 2: rook to e8 (e7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: pawn to e6 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to c5 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to a4 (a6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2290
This position appears in course day 94
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Commentary
The king begins on b1, and short castling takes him five squares across the board to g1. A rook occupies d1, the square a classical setup keeps for the queen, and the second rook stands in the corner on a1. 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, and the queen is on f1. The knights are on e1 and g1 — both can reach f3, so a knight move there has to name its file. The engine's number here is +78 centipawns, and it takes the centre at once: e4 g6 a4 a5 d4 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.