Starting position #52
Back-rank setup: NBBNRQKR
SP-52 · RampartScout — A knight in the corner and the king out on the wing (b/g); like every family, it is closed under mirror twins.
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 f1.
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.
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 910.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 62 Morozov Balance Index: 62 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +18 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 362 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 55.0% (95% CI 41.3–67.9%).
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +27 → -46 → -50 → -21
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #910
- The king starts on g, the rooks on e and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 670 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b3 (a2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f4 (e3·36) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to e7 (e6·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: queen to c6 (b5·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 2: rook to g4 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: queen to e7 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: pawn to g6 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f1·21) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: bishop to h7 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 50
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Commentary
A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, and every pawn on the second rank starts with a defender. The queen is on f1 and the king on g1, so short castling moves the rook alone. The bishops on b1 and c1 open onto h7 and h6 as the c-pawn and the d-pawn step aside. The second knight holds d1. The main line of the run opens f4 f5, then c3 c6 d3 Qf7 — the queens step out early on both sides.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.