Starting position #251
Back-rank setup: NRKQBNRB
SP-251 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and g1, the queen on d1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 609.
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 6 Morozov Balance Index: 6 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +48 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 910 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +25 → +37 → +20 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #609
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (d5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b5 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (d4·54) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d3 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to d2 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to e3 (e1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to b2 (b1·15) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: queen to d5 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to f7 (f4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (f7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 8
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Commentary
The king already occupies c1, so long castling moves only the rook. A knight is in the corner on a1 with a single move, b3; a bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8. Among the pawns, a2 begins with no defender at all. The queen is on d1 next to the king, the second bishop on e1. The engine's line opens e4 d5, then exd5 Qxd5 Nb3 Nb6 — the black queen takes back in the centre.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.