Starting position #457
Back-rank setup: RNNBBKQR
SP-457 · BastionGuard — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, with neither knight in a corner.
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 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: b2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 697.
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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 428 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): +29 → +54 → +25 → +6
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #697
- The king starts on f, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 190 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to c4 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to f3 (e2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c5 (d3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to h2 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to b1 (a1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e2·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: pawn to h8 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to a5 (b4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to d5 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 38
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from f1, with the queen on g1 next to her king. The knights stand side by side on b1 and c1, the bishops on d1 and e1. Among the pawns, b2 is the one that begins without a defender. The rooks sit in the corners, a1 and h1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and a knight collects the pawn back: e4 f5 exf5 Nd6 Nc3 h5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.