Starting position #453
Back-rank setup: RNBBNKQR
SP-453 · 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 a1 and h1, the queen on g1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 698.
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 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 343 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 (60 half-moves): +32 → +18 → +8 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #698
- The king starts on f, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 241 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c4 (d3·16) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (e4·71) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d8 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h8 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (d7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to g7 (g4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: rook to e2 (e1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: queen to e8 (e7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Chess960 tactic on f7 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 5
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from f1, with the queen on g1 next to her king. Every pawn on the second rank begins with a defender — this setup concedes nothing on move one. The rooks sit in the corners, a1 and h1. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, the knights on b1 and e1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and Black answers in kind: e4 e5 d3 d6 f4 exf4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.