Starting position #24
Back-rank setup: NBQNBRKR
SP-24 · 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 g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: e2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 941.
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 11 Morozov Balance Index: 11 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +42 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 861 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): +56 → +46 → +51 → +27
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #941
- The king starts on g, the rooks on f 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: bishop to f5 (b1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f7 (e6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (d5·13) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (h4·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g6 (h5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d5 (e3·18) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 2: pawn to h6 (h5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: rook to e1 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to d3 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1840
- Chess960 tactic on d5 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 31
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Commentary
The knight on a1 has a single first move, b3; the other, on d1, has c3 and e3. The king is on g1 and takes no part in short castling, which moves the h1 rook to f1. The bishop on b1 opens towards h7, the one on e1 towards h4 and a5. Two pawns are exposed in different ways: e2 begins with no defender at all, and g2 has only the king. The engine's main line opens c4 c5, then Nb3 Ne6 e3 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.