Starting position #601
Back-rank setup: RQNBBKRN
SP-601 · BastionScout — A c- or f-file king with at least one knight out on the edge.
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 b1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- 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 265.
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 69 Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 295 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 (43 half-moves): +25 → +10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #265
- 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 668 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: knight to d8 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c5 (d4·19) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a4 (a1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Mate in 1: bishop to h7 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Winning blow: king to g1 (f1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (f3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a8 (a1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: bishop to b4 (c3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: rook to c8 (c1·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: queen to e8 (h8·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 38
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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: c4 c5 O-O O-O Ng3 Ng6. The bishops stand side by side on d1 and e1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on b1, the knights on c1 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.