Starting position #117
Back-rank setup: NQBBRNKR
SP-117 · RampartScout — Wing king plus a rim knight, and only 72 positions qualify — the rarest pattern of 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 g1, the rooks on e1 and h1, the queen on b1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The pawn on f2, g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 842.
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 72 Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 273 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): +30 → +43 → +17 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #842
- The king starts on g, the rooks on e and h
- 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
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to f2 (g1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d4 (d2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to h5 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: rook to a8 (f8) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f3 (d3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: queen to g7 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Winning blow: king to h2 (h1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 53
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Commentary
The knight in the corner on a1 has one first move, b3; the knight on f1 has two, e3 and g3. The queen is on b1, the king on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone. The bishops on c1 and d1 open onto h6, a3, h5 and a4. The pawns on f2 and g2 lean on the king alone. The line in the dataset opens d4 d6, then c3 e5 e4 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.