Starting position #168
Back-rank setup: NBRNBKQR
SP-168 · BastionScout — King off-centre on c or f with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 h1, the queen on g1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on e2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 797.
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 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 30 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: sharpening
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +32 → +18 → +20 → +31 → +16
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 49): +10 cp, +3 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #797
- The king starts on f, the rooks on c and h
- It becomes the daily position in 594 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c4 (c1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to d5 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c8 (c1·14) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d2 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (d6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: bishop to e8 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Winning blow: rook to h5 (h1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on h2 (h1) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 41
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Commentary
Castling runs its ordinary course from f1, with the rooks split to c1 and h1. The knight in the corner on a1 has one first move, b3. Among the pawns, e2 is the one the king alone defends. The queen is on g1, the bishops on b1 and e1. The engine's main line opens c4 c5, then Nb3 f6 f3 d6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.