Starting position #701
Back-rank setup: RQKBNNBR
SP-701 · 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 c1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on b1.
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.
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 456.
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 75 Morozov Balance Index: 75 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +19 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 230 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): +30 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #456
- The king starts on c, the rooks on a and h
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to e4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to h2 (h1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e5 (d6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to c2 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to c2 (b2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (e3·18) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 3: king to b2 (b3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to b1 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to d4 (d1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: knight to c5 (d3·23) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 67
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone from a1. Every pawn on the second rank begins with a defender — this setup concedes nothing on move one. The bishops are on d1 and g1, the knights side by side on e1 and f1. The queen is on b1 beside her king, the second rook in the corner on h1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and keeps the edge small, +19 centipawns: e4 c6 c3 e5 Ne3 Ne6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.