Starting position #148
Back-rank setup: NBBRNQKR
SP-148 · 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 f1.
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 c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 814.
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 13 Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 842 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +54 → +45 → +28 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #814
- The king starts on g, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to f5 (g4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b4 (c3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: pawn to f3 (f2·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g3 (e3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f2 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 3: rook to e2 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to b5 (e2·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: knight to e5 (c4·10) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 78
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Commentary
Both castling moves are half-moves: the king already stands on g1, the rook already on d1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. Every second-rank pawn starts with a defender. The queen is on f1 beside the king, the bishops on b1 and c1. The main line of the run opens e4 e5, then c3 d5 exd5 Rxd5 — a rook recaptures in the centre on the sixth half-move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.