Starting position #922
Back-rank setup: RKRQBBNN
SP-922 · 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 b1, the rooks on a1 and c1, the queen on d1.
From b1 the king makes the longest journey Chess960 allows when castling short: five squares to g1.
The bishops stand on e1 and f1; their long diagonals reach a5 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 37.
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 97 Morozov Balance Index: 97 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +7 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 23 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +16 → +13 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 49): +11 cp, +4 cp against the base run — verified · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #37
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a and c
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 350 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to c2 (b1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e2 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to a3 — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·92) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e3 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: rook to d5 (d2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to d6 (d1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 3: queen to h4 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to c8 (b6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Mate in 3: rook to c8 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
This position appears in course day 82
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Commentary
The king begins on b1 with a rook on either side of him, on a1 and c1, and short castling takes him five squares across the board to g1. The queen keeps her classical square d1 even though the king has left the centre. The bishops stand side by side on e1 and f1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, h2 begins without a defender, and the pawn on b2 leans on the king alone. The knights are on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The engine finds almost nothing for White here — +7 centipawns — and the line runs c4 d5 cxd5 f5 Ng3 f4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.