Starting position #7
Back-rank setup: QNBNRKRB
SP-7 · BastionGuard — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, with neither knight in a corner.
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 g1, the queen on a1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: c2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 946.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 59 Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 410 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 → +17 → -3 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #946
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: rook to h1 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b2 (a1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to h5 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f4 (g5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to e7 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: knight to f5 (e7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1510
- Mate in 3: queen to d4 (a1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Mate in 3: rook to d4 (d1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2210
This position appears in course day 60
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Commentary
This setup castles short by swapping two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade squares. The queen begins in the corner on a1 and a bishop in the other, on h1, with the g-pawn as the single key to its diagonal, which runs to a8. The second bishop, on c1, has two lines, opened by the b-pawn and the d-pawn. Two pawns start with no defender at all, c2 and h2. The published line opens b4 b6, then both bishops step onto the long diagonals with Bb2 Bb7, and castling follows: O-O f5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.