Starting position #395
Back-rank setup: QRNNBKRB
SP-395 · BastionGuard — Off-centre king (c/f), no knight on the a- or h-file.
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 b1 and g1, the queen on a1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: c2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 753.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 72 Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 266 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (50 half-moves): +29 → +16 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #753
- The king starts on f, the rooks on b and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 931 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d8 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c6 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b7 (h1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·76) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to g2 (g1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b6 (a7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: pawn to c5 (c4·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (c5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (f7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on d7 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 6
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on e1. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: c2 and h2. The queen starts in the far corner on a1, the knights on c1 and d1. The engine's line opens g3 c5, then a4 d6 d3 a5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.