Starting position #473
Back-rank setup: RNNBBKRQ
SP-473 · BastionGuard — Off-centre king (c/f), no knight on the a- or h-file.
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 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 681.
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 7 Morozov Balance Index: 7 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +47 centipawns for White (depth 42, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 894 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 (42 half-moves): +56 → +36 → +33 → +29
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #681
- 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 23 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d6 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h4 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (h5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to g2 (g1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to h6 (h4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b5 (a4·36) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d7 (c5·24) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: knight to c5 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: knight to d4 (b5) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on c5 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 42
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. 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 queen begins in the far corner on h1, the second rook in the corner on a1. White's edge here is a wide one, +47 centipawns: d4 h5 g3 Nb6 h4 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.