Chess960 position 703

The back rank is R Q K N N R B B. The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the bishops on g1 and h1, the queen on b1.

White has twenty legal first moves, the same as in ordinary chess.

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 a1 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 d2 is defended only by the king, which makes it the square both sides look at first.

The pawn on e2 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.

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