Chess960 position 863

The back rank is R K N R N Q B B. The king starts on b1, the rooks on a1 and d1, the bishops on g1 and h1, the queen on f1.

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

Castling short, the king goes from b1 to g1 and the rook goes from d1 to f1.

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

One thing about castling here surprises people: 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 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.

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