Starting position #654
Back-rank setup: RNKRQBBN
SP-654 · 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 c1, the rooks on a1 and d1, the queen on e1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on b2, c2 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 212.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 36 Morozov Balance Index: 36 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 619 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 53.0% (95% CI 39.5–66.1%).
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: sharpening
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +38 → +51 → +41 → +20
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #212
- The king starts on c, the rooks on a and d
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 770 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d4 (d1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to d8 (d7) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to c1 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: king to b1 (a2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Mate in 2: pawn to d5 — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e5 (e1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: queen to c7 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: pawn to b6 (a5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Winning blow: rook to a6 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Winning blow: pawn to e6 (d5·24) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
This position appears in course day 31
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone from d1. The bishops sit together on f1 and g1, the knights on b1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. Two second-rank pawns lean on the king alone: b2 and c2, side by side. The queen is on e1, the second rook in the corner on a1. The engine takes the centre with d4, and its queen recaptures on the fifth half-move: d4 f5 e4 fxe4 Qxe4 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.