Starting position #36
Back-rank setup: NBBNQRKR
SP-36 · 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 e1.
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 c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on 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 926.
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 51 Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 488 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (47 half-moves): +33 → +14 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #926
- 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 1436 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: queen to h5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (d4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f4 (g3·53) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (e4·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (h3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: knight to f5 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 2: rook to f8 (f7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Winning blow: rook to e4 (c4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 69
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Commentary
A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, and the queen sits on e1 rather than on her classical square. The king is already on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone, from h1 to f1. The bishops on b1 and c1 open onto h7 and h6 as the c-pawn and the d-pawn step aside. The pawn on g2 is defended by the king and nothing else. The engine's main line opens e4 e5, then c3 c6 d4 d5 — a symmetrical build-up on both sides.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.