Starting position #180
Back-rank setup: NBBRNKRQ
SP-180 · 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 d1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on e2, f2 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 782.
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 92 Morozov Balance Index: 92 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +12 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 80 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +20 → +12 → +7 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 52): +11 cp, -1 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #782
- 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 211 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h7 (g5·7) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h6 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f4 (g3·26) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h6 (c1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e3 (c1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to e5 (d4·23) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to d7 (c5·19) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g5 (f3·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Mate in 3: pawn to d7 (d6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to a7 (a8·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 7
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1; long castling moves the king alone, because the rook already stands on d1. The queen begins in the corner on h1, a knight in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. Both e2 and f2 lean on the king alone — two soft squares side by side. The bishops are on b1 and c1, the second knight on e1. The engine's main line opens d4 d5, then c3 h5 h4 c6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.