Starting position #296
Back-rank setup: QBNRBKRN
SP-296 · BastionScout — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, and a knight begins in a corner.
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 d1 and g1, the queen on a1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
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 381.
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 51 Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 483 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (52 half-moves): +40 → +6 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #381
- The king starts on f, the rooks on d and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 551 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: rook to d1 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to f1 (g1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to g2 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: king to f2 (g1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f5 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to h7 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Castling-960 to the rescue on g1 (f1·14) — Castling-960 · 1570
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a3 (b2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to h8 (h1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
This position appears in course day 51
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1; the long one moves the king alone, because the rook already stands on d1. The cornered knight on h1 has g3 as its only move, and the engine plays it first: Ng3 Ng6 c4 c5 O-O O-O, both sides mirroring each other for six half-moves. The queen begins in the corner on a1, the second knight on c1. The bishops are on b1 and e1. On the second rank, h2 is the only one starting without a defender.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.