Chess960 position 287

The back rank is N R K N R Q B B. The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and e1, the bishops on g1 and h1, the queen on f1.

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 e1 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 d2 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 h1 sits on the long diagonal behind the g2 pawn. Move that pawn and the bishop looks the length of the board at b7.

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