Chess960 position 164

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

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 goes from f1 to g1 and the rook goes from h1 to f1.

Castling long, the king goes from f1 to c1 and the rook stays on d1.

One thing about castling here surprises people: the queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king.

The pawn on e2 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.

The queen stands next to the king, so moves that open lines towards the king tend to hit the queen as well.

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 164 on Play CPU. To train tactics on positions like it, use the Chess960 puzzle trainer.