Starting position #57
Back-rank setup: NNRBBQKR
SP-57 · 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 c1 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 d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 905.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 360 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +39 → +7 → -53 → -54
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #905
- The king starts on g, the rooks on c and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 570 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c6 (d5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d3 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b5 (e2·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to c8 (d6·7) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h6 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to g7 (h6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g7 (c3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (f1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Winning blow: queen to e2 (d3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Chess960 tactic on g7 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 55
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Commentary
The rooks are split far apart, c1 and h1, with the king on g1 between them, so short castling moves the rook alone. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. The bishops on d1 and e1 stand together, one on each colour. Two pawns begin with no defender at all, a2 and b2, side by side on the edge. The line in the dataset opens d4 e6, then c4 c5 dxc5 Qxc5 — the black queen recaptures on the fifth half-move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.