Starting position #456
Back-rank setup: RBNNBKQR
SP-456 · BastionGuard — King off-centre on c or f with both knights on inner files.
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 b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-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 701.
The engine's main line opens with f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 59 Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 402 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +31 → +26 → +41 → +15
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #701
- The king starts on f, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 281 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g6 (h5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to g1 (f1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to g2 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (g8) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to f8 (f3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g7 (f6·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: queen to f5 (d7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to b6 (b2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g7 (f6·8) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 20
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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 are on b1 and e1, the knights on c1 and d1. The engine's main line opens f3 f6, then d4 d5 Nd3 a6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.