Starting position #123
Back-rank setup: NQRNBKRB
SP-123 · BastionScout — Off-centre king plus a rim knight (a/h): 168 positions carry this shape.
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 c1 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 833.
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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 443 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (49 half-moves): +40 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #833
- The king starts on f, the rooks on c and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 348 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d4 (c3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e6 (d5·28) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c7 (b5·8) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to e7 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to a2 (c3) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Mate in 2: queen to e7 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d5 (f3·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to c3 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Chess960 tactic on f7 — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 24
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, a bishop in the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8. On the second rank, h2 begins with no defender at all, and e2 has only the king. The queen stands on b1, the second bishop on e1. The line in the dataset opens c4 c5 and then takes a pawn at once: Qxh7 g6 Qh3 Bg7, with the queen returning to safety.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.