Starting position #98
Back-rank setup: BQNRNBKR
SP-98 · RampartGuard — A b- or g-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on g1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on b1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 855.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 83 Morozov Balance Index: 83 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +16 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 178 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): +38 → +1 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #855
- The king starts on g, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 108 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b8 (b2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to d8 (d2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e6 (g4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h5 (f4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e6 (d4·23) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 2: bishop to f6 (g7) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: queen to g6 (h6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: knight to d7 (e5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to d7 (d1·23) — Chess960 specifics · 1890
- Winning blow: bishop to g2 (e4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2010
This position appears in course day 158
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Commentary
Short castling moves only the rook, because the king already stands on g1; long castling moves only the king, because the rook already stands on d1. The corner bishop on a1 opens to h8 once the b-pawn moves; the second bishop is on f1. The queen is on b1, the knights on c1 and e1. On the second rank, f2 is defended by the king alone. The recorded line opens b4 b5, then h4 h5 Nf3 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.