Starting position #136
Back-rank setup: NBRQBNKR
SP-136 · 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 c1 and h1, the queen on d1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 829.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 59 Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 407 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +33 → +16 → +4 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #829
- The king starts on g, the rooks on c and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 49 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c8 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (g4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Mate in 2: queen to g6 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: queen to a5 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to g3 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (c5·27) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Mate in 3: queen to h7 (d3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to e7 (a7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Chess960 tactic on d3 (d1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 8
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Commentary
A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on f1 with e3 and g3. The king starts on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone. Among the pawns, b2 begins with no defender at all, and g2 has only the king. The queen is on d1, the bishops on b1 and e1. The main line of the run opens c4 c6, then Ne3 Nb6 c5 Nd5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.