Starting position #959
Back-rank setup: RKRNNQBB
SP-959 · 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 c1, 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: d2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 0.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
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 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 281 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +15 → +11 → +3 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #0
- 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 25 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (h1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to c1 (b1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to e4 (e1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: rook to a8 (a2) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 2: queen to a6 (c6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: queen to b5 (a6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to e5 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to a6 (c7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Winning blow: rook to d6 (d1·27) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Chess960 tactic on d5 (g2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 54
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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. The bishops sit together at the edge, on g1 and h1, and the cornered one has a single diagonal to a8. Among the pawns, d2 is the one that begins without a defender — a central pawn bare on move one. The queen is on f1, the knights on d1 and e1 — both can reach d3, so a knight move there has to name its file. White's edge is a narrow +21 centipawns, and the line ends with the two g-pawns trading on the same square: g4 g6 f4 f5 gxf5 gxf5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.