Starting position #581
Back-rank setup: QRBBNKRN
SP-581 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
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 b1 and g1, the queen on a1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 282.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 193 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (43 half-moves): +22 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #282
- The king starts on f, the rooks on b and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 236 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h7 — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g5 (f4·17) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d6 (c5·25) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e4 (e5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to e1 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to d2 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to e8 (a8) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: rook to h7 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: knight to g5 (f3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
This position appears in course day 2
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1, and in the engine's line both sides use it at once: b4 O-O O-O b6 Ng3 c5. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen begins in the far corner on a1, the knights on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The second rook stands on b1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.