Starting position #193
Back-rank setup: BQNBRKNR
SP-193 · BastionGuard — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, with neither knight in a corner.
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 b1.
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.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: d2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 667.
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 7 Morozov Balance Index: 7 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +46 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 901 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +71 → +41 → +14 → +11
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #667
- 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 213 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: bishop to f6 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c5 (b4·17) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d7 (e5·8) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to e2 (f1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h4 (h1·21) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to e8 (e5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 3: queen to c5 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h7 (d3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: king to g1 (h1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Chess960 tactic on e8 (e5) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 28
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Commentary
Three second-rank squares are exposed: d2 has no defender at all, and f2 and g2 have only the king. Castling is ordinary in both directions from f1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 and waits for the b-pawn; the second is on d1. The queen stands on b1, the knights on c1 and g1. The published line opens c4 c5, then b4 b6 Qb2 f6 — the queen steps onto the long diagonal on the fifth half-move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.