Starting position #822
Back-rank setup: RKBNQBRN
SP-822 · RampartScout — King on the wing (b/g) with a knight on the rim (a/h) — the rarest 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 b1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on e1.
From b1 the king makes the longest journey Chess960 allows when castling short: five squares to g1.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 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 134.
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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 417 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): +24 → +36 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #134
- 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 898 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d4 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g8 (g1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d5 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a7 (e3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c3 (b2·26) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: bishop to d5 (f3·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: queen to d7 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to a7 (a1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: bishop to d7 (c6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: queen to g7 (h6·9) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 24
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Commentary
The king begins on b1, and short castling takes him five squares across the board to g1. The bishops are on c1 and f1, one on each colour. The pawn on h2 begins without a defender, and the pawn on c2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on e1, the knights on d1 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 d4 and gives a pawn away on the second move: d4 d5 e4 dxe4 Bc4 Nc6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.