Starting position #269
Back-rank setup: NRKBNQBR
SP-269 · 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 h1, the queen on f1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
The bishops stand on d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
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 600.
The engine's main line opens with a4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 98 Morozov Balance Index: 98 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: 0 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 20 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 48.0% (95% CI 34.8–61.5%).
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +25 → 0 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (4 000 000 000 nodes, depth 56): +15 cp, +15 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · S — slight edge
- Sign verdict: White edge — the minus was noise
- Self-play v2: 100 games at 1 000 000 nodes per move — White scored 48.5% (95% CI 38.9–58.2%)
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #600
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 916 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b6 (f2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to d4 (g1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: pawn to b5 (a4·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to f7 (f4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Castling-960 to the rescue on h1 (c1) — Castling-960 · 1340
- Mate in 2: knight to c6 (e7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h3 (f1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (f1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
This position appears in course day 26
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Commentary
The engine finds no edge at all here: +0 centipawns after a search to depth 48, dead level. The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone from b1. A knight is in the corner on a1 with a single move, b3; the second knight is on e1. Among the pawns, a2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on d1 and g1, the queen on f1. The line runs a4 f5 f4 b6 b4 Ba2.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.