Chess960 position 588

The back rank is Q B R N K R B N. The king starts on e1, the rooks on c1 and f1, the bishops on b1 and g1, the queen on a1.

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 e1 to g1 and the rook stays on f1.

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

One thing about castling here surprises people: the kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king.

The pawn on d2, e2 is defended only by the king, which makes it the square both sides look at first.

The pawn on 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 588 on Play CPU. To train tactics on positions like it, use the Chess960 puzzle trainer.