Starting position #28
Back-rank setup: NBQNRKBR
SP-28 · BastionScout — A knight on the a- or h-file, king on c or f — the mirror twin lands here as well.
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 c1.
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.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-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 940.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 448 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): +37 → -28 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #940
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and h
- 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: rook to g3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d6 (c5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g3 (f2·10) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to c1 — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c8 (c1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (b3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: king to b3 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Mate in 2: queen to g4 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Mate in 3: queen to f6 (e6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: bishop to f1 (b5) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 26
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Commentary
Castling runs its ordinary course in both directions from f1. The knight on a1 has one move, b3; the knight on d1 has two. The bishops occupy b1 and g1, at opposite ends of the rank, with longer lines to h7 and a7. Among the pawns, g2 is defended by the king alone. The main line of the run opens d4 c5, and the queen enters early: dxc5 Qxc5 f3 Qc8.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.