Starting position #225
Back-rank setup: BNRBQKNR
SP-225 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
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 e1.
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: a2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 635.
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 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 202 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): +11 → -27 → -10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #635
- The king starts on f, the rooks on c and h
- It becomes the daily position in 581 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h7 (g5·10) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·40) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f5 (e4·46) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to e1 — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c5 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to d7 (c6·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to e8 (d6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 3: pawn to h7 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (h7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1650
- Winning blow: queen to g4 (d7) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 15
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from f1, with the rooks split to c1 and h1. The corner bishop on a1 opens to h8 once the b-pawn moves; the second bishop is on d1. On the second rank, a2 begins with no defender at all, and g2 has only the king. The queen stands on e1, the knights on b1 and g1. The line in the dataset opens b4 b5, then d3 Nf6 Nf3 d6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.