Starting position #920
Back-rank setup: RBKRBQNN
SP-920 · BastionScout — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, and a knight begins in a corner.
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 d1, the queen on f1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 45.
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 11 Morozov Balance Index: 11 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +42 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 847 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +39 → +3 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #45
- The king starts on c, the rooks on a and d
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 214 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a6 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a4 (a1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to c5 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to d7 (g4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to e4 (d3·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: rook to d8 (d1·18) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e6 (g5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Winning blow: king to b1 (c2·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Winning blow: queen to g8 (h8·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on c7 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 28
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone; the rooks are on a1 and d1. The bishops are on b1 and e1, one on each colour. On the second rank, h2 begins without a defender, and the pawn on b2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on f1, the knights on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. White's edge here is a wide one, +42 centipawns, and the fifth half-move is a rarity of notation: both knights stand on the g-file by then, so the move has to name a rank rather than a letter — e4 e5 Ng3 Ng6 N1e2 a5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.