Starting position #60
Back-rank setup: NBNRQKBR
SP-60 · BastionScout — King off-centre on c or f with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 e1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from f1 to c1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 908.
The engine's main line opens with f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 359 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 (60 half-moves): +34 → +30 → +23 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #908
- The king starts on f, the rooks on d and h
- It becomes the daily position in 272 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f5 (e4·20) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e3 (d2·4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h4 (e1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to c8 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: rook to f6 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Mate in 2: pawn to h7 (g6) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (d7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to e8 (e7) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: knight to d6 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c5 (c4·8) — Chess960 specifics · 2340
This position appears in course day 75
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Commentary
The rook already stands on d1, so long castling moves the king alone from f1 to c1. The knight in the corner on a1 can go only to b3. The bishops occupy b1 and g1 at opposite ends of the rank, reaching h7 and a7 on their longer lines. The pawn on b2 has no defender at the start, and g2 has only the king. The engine's main line opens f3 f6, then e4 Bf7 d4 O-O.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.