Starting position #42
Back-rank setup: NNQRBBKR
SP-42 · 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 d1 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 e1 and f1; their long diagonals reach a5 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 917.
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 42 Morozov Balance Index: 42 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 560 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 56.0% (95% CI 42.3–68.8%).
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +32 → +44 → +56 → +62
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #917
- The king starts on g, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 326 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c4 (a5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to g3 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (c1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to b8 (h2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d7 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 2: queen to d8 (a8·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: rook to c7 (c3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g7 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1670
- Winning blow: pawn to b8 (b7·16) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Winning blow: knight to g5 (e4·15) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 126
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Commentary
Short castling moves only the rook, because the king already stands on g1; long castling moves only the king, because the rook already stands on d1. The corner knight on a1 has b3 as its only move; the second knight is on b1. The bishops on e1 and f1 open onto a5, h4, a6 and h3. The pawn on a2 starts without a defender. The engine's main line opens c4 c5, then e4 e6 Nc3 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.