Starting position #365
Back-rank setup: NRKBRQBN
SP-365 · 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 c1, the rooks on b1 and e1, the queen on f1.
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 312.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 16 Morozov Balance Index: 16 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +39 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 807 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 (58 half-moves): +29 → +29 → +8 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #312
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 755 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: rook to e4 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e1 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to f1 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to a6 (b5) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to b1 (c1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: knight to f7 (d6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to a5 (b3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Castling-960 to the rescue on e1 — Castling-960 · 1340
- Winning blow: rook to e8 (e4·9) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Chess960 tactic on g4 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 21
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Commentary
Both knights start in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3 — and in the engine's line all four corner knights take exactly those squares: f4 f5 Nb3 Nb6 Ng3 Ng6. The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone from b1. Among the pawns, a2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on d1 and g1, the queen on f1. The rooks are on b1 and e1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.