Starting position #65
Back-rank setup: BNNBRKQR
SP-65 · BastionGuard — Off-centre king (c/f), no knight on the a- or h-file.
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 e1 and h1, the queen on g1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 891.
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 51 Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 486 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): +39 → 0 → -1 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #891
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 160 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h5 (d1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f7 (e5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h8 (a1·16) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Mate in 1: queen to f8 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Winning blow: knight to c1 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: queen to c8 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: bishop to c4 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Mate in 2: knight to h6 (g4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: knight to d6 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on c8 (c7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 27
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Commentary
King on f1 and queen on g1, with a bishop shut into the corner on a1 behind them. Castling is ordinary both ways. The second bishop, on d1, opens along the c-pawn and the e-pawn towards h5 and a4. Every second-rank pawn begins with a defender. The engine's line opens e4 b6, then b3 f6 f4 Qf7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.