Chess960 position 226

The back rank is B N R Q K B N R. The king starts on e1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the bishops on a1 and f1, the queen on d1.

White has twenty legal first moves, the same as in ordinary chess.

Castling short, the king goes from e1 to g1 and the rook goes from h1 to f1.

Castling long, the king goes from e1 to c1 and the rook goes from c1 to d1.

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

The pawn on a2 starts with no defender at all.

The bishop on a1 sits on the long diagonal behind the b2 pawn. Move that pawn and the bishop looks the length of the board at g7.

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