Starting position #21
Back-rank setup: NQBBNRKR
SP-21 · 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 f1 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.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 938.
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 40 Morozov Balance Index: 40 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +29 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 586 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +20 → -4 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #938
- The king starts on g, the rooks on f and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 536 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f5 (e4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e6 (d5·23) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to e4 (f3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to g6 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: rook to f2 (f1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h7 (c2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: queen to h5 (g4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to e8 (e1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Chess960 tactic on f6 (d7) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 66
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Commentary
The knight in the corner on a1 has one square to go to, b3, and nothing else. The queen begins on b1 beside it, with the bishops on c1 and d1 covering both colours. The king is on g1 already, so short castling belongs to the rook alone: h1 to f1. No second-rank pawn starts undefended. The line in the dataset opens e4 c5, then c3 d6 d4 Nf6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.