Starting position #480
Back-rank setup: BBQRNKNR
SP-480 · 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 d1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from f1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 575.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 69 Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 303 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 (58 half-moves): +33 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #575
- The king starts on f, the rooks on d and h
- It becomes the daily position in 318 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c6 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (b1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f7 (e5·18) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e7 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to h8 (h7·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: queen to f3 (g4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: pawn to c4 (b3·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Mate in 3: pawn to a5 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Chess960 tactic on f8 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 23
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Commentary
The rook already occupies d1, so long castling moves the king alone from f1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. The pawn on f2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen is on c1, the knights on e1 and g1. The engine's main line opens c4 c5, then b3 e6 e4 Ne7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.