Starting position #941
Back-rank setup: RKRBNQBN
SP-941 · 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 c1, 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 d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: d2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 24.
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 2 Morozov Balance Index: 2 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +54 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 936 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +51 → +67 → +61 → +26
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #24
- The king starts on b, the rooks on a and c
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to b3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c5 (g1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Mate in 1: queen to b5 — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Winning blow: knight to d7 (c5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to f3 (e2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Mate in 2: rook to a8 (a4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: knight to e5 (d3·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: queen to a5 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b7 (a6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e6 (b3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1890
This position appears in course day 44
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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 bishops are on d1 and g1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, d2 begins without a defender — a central pawn bare on move one — and the pawn on b2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on f1, the knights on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The engine takes the centre with e4, and White's edge here is a wide one, +54 centipawns: e4 f6 Ng3 e5 Bg4 Be6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.