Starting position #653
Back-rank setup: RNKBRQBN
SP-653 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and e1, the queen on f1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on b2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 216.
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 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 334 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): +32 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #216
- The king starts on c, the rooks on a and e
- It becomes the daily position in 39 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to e7 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to c7 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: pawn to d7 (e6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to b3 (a3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h5 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: queen to g8 (g5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f7 (c4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: queen to b6 (f2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1510
- Mate in 2: rook to a8 (a6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to b6 (e3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 95
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone from a1. The bishops are on d1 and g1, the knights on b1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. Among the pawns, b2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen is on f1, the second rook on e1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and Black answers in kind: e4 e5 Ng3 Ng6 Nc3 a5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.