Starting position #288
Back-rank setup: BBQNRKRN
SP-288 · 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 e1 and g1, the queen on c1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 383.
The engine's main line opens with Ng3, bringing the knight out to g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 72 Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 270 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: sharpening
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +35 → +44 → +32 → +44
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #383
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 447 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e5 (a1·18) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to f8 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c5 (c1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f6 (b2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Winning blow: queen to f6 (g7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·21) — Chess960 specifics · 1510
- Mate in 3: knight to e6 (g7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (c1·16) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g5 (g3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 20
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Commentary
Here the cornered knight is on h1, and g3 is its only move — the engine plays it at once: Ng3. The line runs Ng3 c5 c4 Ng6 e3 b6. Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. The pawn on h2 begins with no defender, and the queen stands on c1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.