Starting position #833
Back-rank setup: BRKBNRQN
SP-833 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
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.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 123.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 92 Morozov Balance Index: 92 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +12 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 75 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (59 half-moves): +23 → +16 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 54): +15 cp, +3 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #123
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 294 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d2 (c1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to d4 (b2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to c6 (b4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to b6 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to e8 (e1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to a6 (c5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b2 (d4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1480
- Mate in 3: queen to a6 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Mate in 3: pawn to b5 (b4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2170
This position appears in course day 73
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1 and the rook already occupies f1, so each castling sends a single piece — the rook one way, the king the other. A bishop holds the corner on a1 with one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on d1, running to a4 on one side and h5 on the other. Among the pawns, a2 begins without a defender, and the pawn on d2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on g1, the knights on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The search ran to depth 49 and calls it +12 centipawns: f4 f5 b3 b6 e3 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.