Starting position #152
Back-rank setup: NBRNBQKR
SP-152 · RampartScout — The king starts on b or g while a knight begins on the a- or h-file — the smallest family.
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 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 e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 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 813.
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 75 Morozov Balance Index: 75 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +19 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 249 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 → +30 → +13 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #813
- 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 496 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f4 (f1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (h3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to g4 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f8 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: rook to c8 (g8) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to h4 (h3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1930
- Winning blow: rook to f6 (f7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Chess960 tactic on g6 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 59
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Commentary
Every pawn on the second rank begins with a defender — this setup concedes nothing on move one. The rooks split to c1 and h1, the king sits on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with a single move, b3. The queen is on f1, the bishops on b1 and e1. The recorded line opens c4 c5, then h4 h5 Nb3 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.