Starting position #40
Back-rank setup: NBNQBRKR
SP-40 · 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 f1 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 925.
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 26 Morozov Balance Index: 26 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 718 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +29 → +13 → +19 → -4
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #925
- The king starts on g, the rooks on f and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1206 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d6 (c5·14) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g5 (f4·25) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to g2 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a5 (b6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to a7 (a6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: queen to e7 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: pawn to h5 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to e7 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to h8 (f8·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on e6 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 156
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Commentary
Two pawns are exposed from the first move here: b2 has no defender at all, and g2 has only the king. The knight on a1 can go to b3 and nowhere else; the knight on c1 has b3 and d3. The king already occupies g1, so short castling moves the rook alone, from h1 to f1. The bishops on b1 and e1 open towards h7 and h4 once the a-, c-, d- and f-pawns move. The main line of the run opens c4 c5, then Nab3 d5 Nxc5 dxc4 — a trade in the centre by the fifth half-move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.