Starting position #58
Back-rank setup: NNRQBBKR
SP-58 · 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 c1 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 e1 and f1; their long diagonals reach a5 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 901.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 75 Morozov Balance Index: 75 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +19 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 252 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +55 → +12 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #901
- 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 580 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d6 (c5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d8 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a5 (e1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d4 (b3·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to e8 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to c7 (c1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to b5 (d4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to f8 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: rook to f7 (f1·16) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (f6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2150
This position appears in course day 47
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Commentary
The queen holds d1 and the rooks stand on c1 and h1, an unusually wide split, with the king on g1 between them. Short castling moves only the rook. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its single move. The pawns on a2 and b2 both start with no defender at all. The main line of the run opens d4 d5, then Nb3 h5 h4 Nc6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.