Starting position #596
Back-rank setup: RBBQNKRN
SP-596 · BastionScout — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, and a knight begins in a corner.
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 d1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-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 270.
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 93 Morozov Balance Index: 93 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +11 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 66 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 (70 half-moves): +21 → 0 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 53): +11 cp, 0 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #270
- 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 578 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e4 (g3·8) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to c2 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to f8 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d8 (d5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: queen to h8 (h5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: rook to d5 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: bishop to g5 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to f6 (f1·14) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Winning blow: queen to h2 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
This position appears in course day 67
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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: d4 d5 O-O O-O Ng3 Ng6. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on d1, the knights on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The second rook stands in the corner on a1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.