Starting position #285
Back-rank setup: NRKBNRBQ
SP-285 · BastionScout — Off-centre king plus a rim knight (a/h): 168 positions carry this shape.
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 f1, the queen on h1.
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 584.
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 78 Morozov Balance Index: 78 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +18 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 215 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): +31 → -15 → -13 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #584
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 340 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to a3 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to a4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to d7 (e5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (b1) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to c5 (a6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 2: rook to f6 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: queen to f3 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: bishop to e6 (d7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Winning blow: rook to b4 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Chess960 tactic on g7 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 46
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Commentary
Both castlings are half-moves here: the king already stands on c1 for the long one, and the rook already occupies f1 for the short. The queen begins in the corner on h1, the bishops on d1 and g1. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on e1. On the second rank, a2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. 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.