Starting position #119
Back-rank setup: NQBRNKRB
SP-119 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on f1, the rooks on d1 and g1, the queen on b1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 834.
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 97 Morozov Balance Index: 97 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +7 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 33 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +12 → +10 → +2 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 52): +18 cp, +11 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #834
- The king starts on f, the rooks on d and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1300 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h7 (g5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (f3·13) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d4 (c3·29) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g6 (e5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (f6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: knight to e7 (c6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to e5 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d2 (d1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h6 (c1·22) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Chess960 tactic on c4 (d3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 12
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1, and long castling moves the king alone to c1, because the rook already occupies d1. A knight is in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, a bishop in the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8. Among the pawns, h2 has no defender at all, and e2 and f2 have only the king. The queen stands on b1, the second bishop on c1. The engine's line opens c4 g6, then d4 c6 g3 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.