Starting position #435
Back-rank setup: BRNNQKRB
SP-435 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
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 e1.
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 a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
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 707.
The engine's main line opens with b3.
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 475 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): +35 → +8 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #707
- 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 493 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: queen to e7 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d4 (c3·13) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to e5 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to g1 (f1·18) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: pawn to g8 — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: rook to g8 (h8) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to e8 (e1·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Mate in 3: pawn to d6 (e5) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: bishop to e4 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: pawn to d3 (d2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 77
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Commentary
Both corners hold a bishop, a1 towards h8 and h1 towards a8, each with a single diagonal. Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: c2 and h2. The queen is on e1 beside her king, the knights on c1 and d1. The line in the dataset opens b3 b6, then e4 e5 Nd3 f6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.