Chess960 position 636

The back rank is R B N K Q R B N. The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the bishops on b1 and g1, the queen on e1.

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 d1 to g1 and the rook stays on f1.

Castling long, the king goes from d1 to c1 and the rook goes from a1 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 b2, g2 starts with no defender at all.

A rook sits in the corner on a1, 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 636 on Play CPU. To train tactics on positions like it, use the Chess960 puzzle trainer.