Starting position #613
Back-rank setup: RNBBQKRN
SP-613 · 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 e1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-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 250.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 94 Morozov Balance Index: 94 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +10 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 52 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +24 → +81 → +89 → +80 → +93
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 55): +24 cp, +14 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #250
- 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 212 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: bishop to g6 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c2 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e6 (d5·26) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h6 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to e2 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to b3 (c4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: knight to f4 (h5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: pawn to f5 (e4·16) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on h7 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 8
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1, and both sides use it at once: e4 e5 O-O O-O c3 c6. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, 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 b1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The engine takes the centre first and keeps the edge small, +10 centipawns.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.