Starting position #612
Back-rank setup: RBBNQKRN
SP-612 · 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 e1.
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 254.
The engine's main line opens with O-O, bringing the king out to g1.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 51 Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 466 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +36 → +26 → +24 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #254
- 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 346 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: queen to e3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f4 (c1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f4 (c1·18) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to f1 (a1) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Mate in 2: queen to g6 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: bishop to c7 (g3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: knight to f6 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: queen to f5 (f8) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: knight to h5 — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Chess960 tactic on g2 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 23
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Commentary
White castles on move one here: O-O is the engine's first move, the king on f1 and the rook on g1 changing places. The line then runs c5 f4 O-O c4 e6, with Black castling in turn. 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 e1 beside her king, the knights on d1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.