Starting position #821
Back-rank setup: RKBBNQRN
SP-821 · 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 b1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on f1.
From b1 the king makes the longest journey Chess960 allows when castling short: five squares to g1.
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: h2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 138.
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 61 Morozov Balance Index: 61 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 367 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 (57 half-moves): +36 → +22 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #138
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 836 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to c3 (b2·8) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: pawn to e6 (d5·14) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to b1 (a2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to e8 (e1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e8 (h5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: bishop to d4 (b2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 2: rook to f4 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 2: knight to c5 (d7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Winning blow: bishop to h5 (d1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 16
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Commentary
The king begins on b1, and short castling takes him five squares across the board to g1. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on f1, the knights on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move, and the rooks are on a1 and g1. The engine takes the centre with e4: e4 a5 a4 e5 Nf3 Ng6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.