Starting position #84
Back-rank setup: NBBNRKRQ
SP-84 · BastionScout — King off-centre on c or f with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 878.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 207 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 (60 half-moves): +22 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #878
- The king starts on f, the rooks on e and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 995 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d6 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to g6 (b1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g1 (h1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to e1 (f2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Castling-960 to the rescue on g1 — Castling-960 · 1150
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Winning blow: rook to f7 (e7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1790
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f7 (e6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Winning blow: bishop to g5 (h6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 43
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Commentary
A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, and every second-rank pawn begins with a defender. Short castling swaps the king on f1 with the rook on g1. The queen is in the corner on h1, the bishops on b1 and c1. The second knight holds d1. The engine's main line opens d4 d5, then h4 c6 c3 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.