Chess960 position 118

The back rank is N Q B R N B K R. The king starts on g1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the bishops on c1 and f1, the queen on b1.

White has 19 legal first moves, fewer than the twenty of the standard array, because the knights reach a different number of squares from where they stand.

Castling short, the king stays on g1 and the rook goes from h1 to f1.

Castling long, the king goes from g1 to c1 and the rook stays on d1.

Two things about castling here surprise people: castling short leaves the king where it already stands on g1; only the rook moves; the queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king.

The pawn on f2 is defended only by the king, which makes it the square both sides look at first.

A rook sits in the corner on h1, so bringing it into the game is usually a reason to castle early.

Every rule of chess applies here unchanged apart from castling, which the rules page explains in full. To play this exact arrangement against the computer, open position 118 on Play CPU. To train tactics on positions like it, use the Chess960 puzzle trainer.