Starting position #149
Back-rank setup: NRBBNQKR
SP-149 · 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 f1.
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 d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-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 810.
The engine's main line opens with d3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 355 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 → +21 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #810
- 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 114 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to g3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f5 (e4·51) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to e4 (e1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e6 (f4·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (c5·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Mate in 3: rook to g8 (h8) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (g4·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on g2 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 29
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Commentary
The rooks begin on b1 and h1, with a knight outside them in the corner on a1 whose only move is b3. The king is on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone. Among the pawns, a2 is the one without a defender. The queen stands on f1, the bishops on c1 and d1. The engine's line opens d3, then c5 e4 b5 c3 d6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.