Starting position #472
Back-rank setup: RBNNBKRQ
SP-472 · BastionGuard — Both knights begin inside the board while the king stands on c or f; a position and its mirror twin share this family.
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 g1, the queen on h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
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 685.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 10 Morozov Balance Index: 10 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +43 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 867 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (54 half-moves): +40 → +21 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #685
- The king starts on f, the rooks on a and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1359 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h8 (c3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (h1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to d1 (e2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f4 (e2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f5 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 2: bishop to f3 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (d5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: queen to e8 (c6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: pawn to h7 (g6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on d6 (f5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 21
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. Every pawn on the second rank begins with a defender — this setup concedes nothing on move one. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the knights on c1 and d1. The queen begins in the far corner on h1, the second rook in the corner on a1. White's edge here is a wide one, +43 centipawns: d4 h5 c3 g6 Nd3 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.