Starting position #118
Back-rank setup: NQBRNBKR
SP-118 · RampartScout — A knight in the corner and the king out on the wing (b/g); like every family, it is closed under mirror twins.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on g1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on b1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 838.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 94 Morozov Balance Index: 94 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +10 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 61 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +44 → -9 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 51): +10 cp, 0 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #838
- The king starts on g, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 197 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to f2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to f2 (g1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b4 (b1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f3 (g2·22) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g3 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: queen to g6 (d3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: rook to h8 (c8·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e6 (g4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: pawn to c5 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Chess960 tactic on g2 — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 49
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Commentary
Short castling moves only the rook, since the king already stands on g1; long castling moves only the king, since the rook already stands on d1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. The queen is on b1, the bishops on c1 and f1. Among the pawns, f2 is defended by the king alone. The main line of the run opens e4 d5, then e5 c5 Nf3 Bg4 — the centre closes and a bishop pins from g4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.