Starting position #377
Back-rank setup: NRKBBRNQ
SP-377 · 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 f1, the queen on h1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-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 297.
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 37 Morozov Balance Index: 37 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +30 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 608 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 (60 half-moves): +31 → +13 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #297
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 766 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·38) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a6 (e2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e3 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f8 (f1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 2: queen to f4 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (d4·21) — Chess960 specifics · 1620
- Mate in 3: queen to c4 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: knight to b7 (a5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Chess960 tactic on f7 (g8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 71
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads
Commentary
Both castlings are half-moves here: the king already stands on c1 for the long one, and the rook already occupies f1 for the short. That rook gets to work early: after e4 e5 f4 exf4 it recaptures with Rxf4, and Black replies Ne7. A knight is in the corner on a1 with a single move, b3; the second knight is on g1. The bishops stand side by side on d1 and e1, the queen in the corner on h1. Among the pawns, a2 is the one that begins without a defender.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.