Chess960 position 254

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

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 c1 to g1 and the rook goes from h1 to f1.

Castling long, the king stays on c1 and the rook goes from b1 to d1.

One thing about castling here surprises people: castling long leaves the king where it already stands on c1; only the rook moves.

The pawn on a2 starts with no defender at all.

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