Starting position #160
Back-rank setup: BBNRNKQR
SP-160 · BastionGuard — Both knights begin inside the board while the king stands on c or f; a position and its mirror twin share this 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 f1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on g1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from f1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 799.
The engine's main line opens with f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 9 Morozov Balance Index: 9 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +44 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 877 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +40 → +39 → +44 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #799
- The king starts on f, the rooks on d and h
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to a3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d8 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g6 (b1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to e7 (f6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g3 (h2·30) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to f5 (h3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: bishop to e6 (a2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Mate in 3: rook to h7 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Winning blow: queen to h5 (h4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: knight to c5 (d3·24) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 17
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Commentary
The rook already occupies d1, so long castling moves the king alone from f1. The queen stands on g1, next to the king. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. Every second-rank pawn starts defended. The main line of the run opens f3 d5, then b3 f6 d4 Qf7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.