Starting position #192
Back-rank setup: BBQNRKNR
SP-192 · BastionGuard — King off-centre on c or f with both knights on inner files.
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 e1 and h1, the queen on c1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 671.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 78 Morozov Balance Index: 78 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +18 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 219 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 (60 half-moves): +17 → -3 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #671
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 471 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to b6 (b1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g4 (f3·20) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f3 (g2·18) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to g7 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to e1 (f2·7) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to d5 (f3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to c8 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 3: queen to f8 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (c6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: pawn to f8 (f7·9) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 24
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Commentary
The knights start on d1 and g1, which gives the g1 knight the classical f3 and h3 to choose from. Castling is ordinary in both directions from f1. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. On the second rank, g2 is defended by the king alone. The engine's main line opens b4 b6, then c4 c5 bxc5 bxc5 — the b-file opens on both sides at once.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.