Starting position #600
Back-rank setup: RBQNBKRN
SP-600 · 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 a1 and g1, the queen on c1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 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 269.
The engine's main line opens with Ng3, bringing the knight out to g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 86 Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 131 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): +18 → +28 → +26 → 0 → +3
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 51): +17 cp, +2 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #269
- 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 759 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c4 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h2 (g2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to e4 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f4 (f1·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to h6 (c1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to f8 (g6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to f4 (c1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to g6 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: rook to h6 (h8) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on f4 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 115
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Commentary
The cornered knight on h1 has g3 as its only move, and the engine plays it first: Ng3 c5 c4 O-O O-O Ng6, with both sides castling. Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the second knight on d1. The pawn on h2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on c1, the second rook in the corner on a1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.