Starting position #593
Back-rank setup: BRQBNKRN
SP-593 · 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 c1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 267.
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 99 Morozov Balance Index: 99 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +2 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 9 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 49.0% (95% CI 35.7–62.4%).
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (46 half-moves): +12 → +7 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 50): +16 cp, +14 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #267
- 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 813 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (d4·20) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b6 (c5·16) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e8 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: knight to e7 (g6·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Mate in 2: rook to f8 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: pawn to a7 (a6·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: queen to f8 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to b3 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on h7 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 61
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Commentary
The engine puts this start at +2 centipawns — about as level as a game of chess begins. Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on d1. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: a2 and h2. The queen is on c1, the knights on e1 and h1, and the line runs c4 c5 Ng3 O-O b3 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.