Starting position #616
Back-rank setup: RBNQBKRN
SP-616 · BastionScout — A knight on the a- or h-file, king on c or f — the mirror twin lands here as well.
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 d1.
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.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 253.
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 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 191 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 (60 half-moves): +33 → +12 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #253
- 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 465 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h7 (g5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h5 (g3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to h7 (h8) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f4 (f1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to d7 (d1·14) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c2 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: queen to h7 (h5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: bishop to f6 (e5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Mate in 2: queen to h5 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on e7 (c5) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 14
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Commentary
Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the knights on c1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: b2 and h2. The queen starts on d1 and steps out to b3 in the line: c4 Ng6 Ng3 c6 Qb3 a5. The rooks are on a1 and g1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.