Sharpest starting positions
Chess960 begins from one of 960 shuffled back ranks — and they are not equally sharp. These are the starts where a single first move already stands well clear of the field, ranked by how far ahead it is.
- 01 SP-557rnkbnqbr e4 · +59
- 02 SP-408rbqnbnkr d4 · +53
- 03 SP-935rkbrnqnb e4 · +51
- 04 SP-368bbnrkrnq g3 · +47
- 05 SP-578bqrnkbrn c4 · +46
- 06 SP-749rknbnqbr e4 · +46
- 07 SP-776qbrkbnrn d4 · +46
- 08 SP-944bbrkrnnq g3 · +44
- 09 SP-349nrkbqrbn Nb3 · +40
- 10 SP-752bbrknnrq g4 · +39
- 11 SP-792rbqkbnrn d4 · +39
- 12 SP-379nrkrbnqb f4 · +38
- 13 SP-193bqnbrknr c4 · +36
- 14 SP-303qnrkrnbb b3 · +36
- 15 SP-244nbbrkqnr e4 · +35
- 16 SP-272bbnrknrq g3 · +35
- 17 SP-848bbrknrnq g4 · +35
- 18 SP-950rkbrnbnq e4 · +35
- 19 SP-15qnnrkrbb b3 · +34
- 20 SP-336bbnrkqrn c4 · +34
- 21 SP-608bbrnqkrn c4 · +30
- 22 SP-764rbknnrbq e4 · +30
- 23 SP-230nrbqkbnr e4 · +29
- 24 SP-249nrkbbqnr e4 · +29
What a “sharp” start means in Chess960
Standard chess has exactly one starting position, so asking which opening is sharpest only makes sense move by move. Chess960 has 960, and they differ from the very first move: on some the pieces already point at one another and one precise move is called for, while on others almost anything develops soundly. That difference is measurable before a single piece has moved.
The metric is deliberately plain. For each of the 960 starts the engine names its best and third-best first move; the gap between them, in centipawns, is the position's sharpness. A large gap means the start funnels play into one forcing choice — sharp. A small gap means the opening is calm and forgiving. Every number is reproducible: the same engine at the same depth returns the same order.
The result puts a familiar position in its place. Measured this way at depth 20, the standard chess array (SP-518) scores only about 5, while the sharpest of the 960 clears 59. The ordinary starting position is, by this measure, one of the calmest openings in all of Chess960 — the shuffle is what makes most starts demand an accurate first move.