Chess960 position 829

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

Castling long, the king goes from b1 to c1 and the rook goes from a1 to d1.

Two things about castling here surprise people: the kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king; the king travels rightwards to castle long.

The pawn on b2 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.

A rook sits in the corner on a1, so bringing it into the game is usually a reason to castle early.

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