Chess960 position 349

The back rank is N R K B Q R B N. The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and f1, the bishops on d1 and g1, the queen on e1.

White has 18 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 stays on f1.

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

Two things about castling here surprise people: castling long leaves the king where it already stands on c1; only the rook moves; the kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king.

The pawn on a2, g2 starts with no defender at all.

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