Starting position #755
Back-rank setup: BRKNNRQB
SP-755 · 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 b1 and f1, the queen on g1.
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, e2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 387.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
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 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 226 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 (58 half-moves): +24 → +5 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #387
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and f
- 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: knight to b4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f7 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (d5·10) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to e5 (f4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f5 (e3·15) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d7 (d3·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: rook to c7 (c6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: queen to a7 (g1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Mate in 3: bishop to e5 (c3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Chess960 tactic on c7 (b6) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 29
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Commentary
Both castlings are half-moves here: the king already stands on c1 for the long one, and the rook already occupies f1 for the short. Both corners hold a bishop, a1 towards h8 and h1 towards a8, each with a single diagonal. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: a2 and e2, and d2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on g1, the knights side by side on d1 and e1. The engine's line opens g4 g5, then Nd3 Nd6 a4 b6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.