Starting position #29
Back-rank setup: NQNBRKBR
SP-29 · 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 f1, the rooks on e1 and h1, the queen on b1.
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 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: d2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 936.
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 92 Morozov Balance Index: 92 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +12 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 83 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (69 half-moves): +13 → +17 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 50): +8 cp, -4 cp against the base run — verified · E — even
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #936
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 547 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f4 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (f3·11) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f4 (d3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Mate in 1: queen to g7 (h6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Winning blow: rook to e3 (e1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Mate in 2: rook to c8 (c7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to e1 (f1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: knight to g6 (h4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Winning blow: knight to f4 (e2·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: rook to f5 (f1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 48
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Commentary
The corner knight on a1 can only go to b3; the second knight, on c1, has b3 and d3. The king begins on f1 with castling ordinary in both directions. The bishop on d1 opens along the c-pawn and the e-pawn, the one on g1 along the f-pawn and the h-pawn. Among the pawns, d2 starts with no defender, and g2 has only the king. The engine's line opens e4 e5, then Nab3 Nab6 d3 f5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.