Starting position #137
Back-rank setup: NRQBBNKR
SP-137 · RampartScout — King on b or g with a knight already on the edge — the least common of the position families (72 in all).
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 b1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 825.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 442 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): +34 → +18 → +16 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #825
- The king starts on g, the rooks on b and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 276 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c7 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c2 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c7 (d6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to e6 (e3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to h6 (c1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: queen to e5 (g5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to g6 (d3·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: knight to b4 (c2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Mate in 3: queen to g5 (g3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Winning blow: queen to f6 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 32
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Commentary
The rooks begin on b1 and h1, with a knight outside them in the corner on a1 — and that knight has only b3 to go to. The king is already on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone. Among the pawns, a2 has no defender at all, and g2 has only the king. The queen stands on c1, the bishops on d1 and e1. The engine's line opens b4 e5, then c4 d6 Nb3 Ne6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.