Starting position #228
Back-rank setup: NBBRQKNR
SP-228 · 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 h1, the queen on e1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from f1 to c1.
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 g2 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 638.
The engine's main line opens with e4, 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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 437 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 (60 half-moves): +40 → +17 → +8 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #638
- The king starts on f, the rooks on d and h
- It becomes the daily position in 695 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f5 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to h2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g4 (f3·17) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f4 (c1·24) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e2 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to f2 (f1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (e4·26) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: rook to b7 (d7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Chess960 tactic on c7 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 28
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Commentary
The rook already occupies d1, so long castling moves the king alone from f1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move; the knight on g1 has f3 and h3. Among the pawns, g2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on e1, the bishops on b1 and c1. The engine's main line opens e4 e5, then c4 c6 d4 exd4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.