Starting position #753
Back-rank setup: BRKBNNRQ
SP-753 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
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 b1 and g1, the queen on h1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, f2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 395.
The engine's main line opens with e3.
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 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 227 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 → +1 → -4 → -1
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #395
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b 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
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g3 (f2·12) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to a4 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to d3 (h3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to b1 (c1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: knight to e3 (g2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: rook to f8 (g8) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: knight to f7 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d7 (c6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: queen to g3 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to e4 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
This position appears in course day 75
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone from b1. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on d1. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: a2 and f2. The queen begins in the far corner on h1, the knights side by side on e1 and f1. The line in the dataset opens e3 h5, then h4 e6 Bf3 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.