Starting position #324
Back-rank setup: NBBRQKRN
SP-324 · 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 d1 and g1, the queen on e1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 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 350.
The engine's main line opens with O-O, bringing the king out to g1.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 86 Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 140 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 (70 half-moves): +21 → +19 → +30 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 55): +17 cp, +2 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #350
- 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 676 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to e5 (f4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c6 (d5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to d1 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d8 (d1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to h5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b4 (e1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g5 (f4·38) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to f3 (a3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (f4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g6 (f5·23) — Chess960 specifics · 2010
This position appears in course day 55
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads
Commentary
Both sides can castle on move one here, and in the engine's line both do: O-O O-O, then c4 f5 d4 d5. 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. Both knights start in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, the queen on e1 next to her king. The pawn on 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.