Starting position #955
Back-rank setup: RKRNBNQB
SP-955 · 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 b1, the rooks on a1 and c1, the queen on g1.
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: e2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 1.
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 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 180 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 → +17 → +2 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #1
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a and c
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 181 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f6 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to c4 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h5 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (d5·17) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: rook to d8 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: king to d2 (c1·21) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Winning blow: queen to e7 (f8·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Mate in 3: bishop to c5 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b5 (e2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to b6 (d4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 117
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Commentary
The king begins on b1 with a rook on either side of him, on a1 and c1, 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 e1. The pawn on e2 is the one that begins without a defender — a central pawn bare on move one. The queen is on g1, the knights on d1 and f1 — both can reach e3, so a knight move there has to name its file. White's edge is a narrow +17 centipawns, and the line runs in matched pairs: a4 a5 g4 g5 d3 d6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.