Starting position #61
Back-rank setup: NNRBQKBR
SP-61 · 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 c1 and h1, the queen on e1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 904.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 5 Morozov Balance Index: 5 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +49 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 921 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +31 → +34 → +32 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #904
- The king starts on f, the rooks on c and h
- It becomes the daily position in 247 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f5 (e4·8) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f7 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d7 (a4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b4 (c5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d3 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to g3 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: bishop to g6 (b1·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 3: queen to h8 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to e4 (e1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on f5 (h3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 11
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Commentary
Castling runs its ordinary course from f1, but the rooks start unusually far apart, on c1 and h1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only first move. The bishops on d1 and g1 open along the c-, e-, f- and h-pawns. The pawns on a2 and b2 start with no defender at all, and g2 has only the king. The published line opens f4 f6, then c4 c5 e4 Bf7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.