Starting position #208
Back-rank setup: BBNQRKNR
SP-208 · 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 e1 and h1, the queen on d1.
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 f2, 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 655.
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 92 Morozov Balance Index: 92 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +12 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 78 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (57 half-moves): +30 → +17 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 51): +26 cp, +14 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · M — moderate edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #655
- 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 1157 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to b1 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e5 (a1·17) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Mate in 2: queen to e6 — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d1 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to b6 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to h7 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: queen to f7 (d5·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: queen to g7 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e2·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Chess960 tactic on c4 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 131
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Commentary
Both f2 and g2 rely on the king alone — two soft squares side by side. 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. The queen is on d1, the knights on c1 and g1. The main line of the run opens c4 c5, then b3 e5 Nh3 b6 — the knight goes to the rim rather than to f3.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.