Starting position #936
Back-rank setup: RBKRBNQN
SP-936 · 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 c1, the rooks on a1 and d1, the queen on g1.
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: e2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 29.
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 11 Morozov Balance Index: 11 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +42 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 845 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): +40 → +31 → +7 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #29
- 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 422 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a8 (a3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e7 (f5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d1 (e1·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a2 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c5 (g1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to e1 (d2) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 2: queen to e6 (e3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c6 (d5·38) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: queen to b4 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
This position appears in course day 9
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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. The pawn on e2 begins without a defender — a central pawn bare on move one — and the pawn on b2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on g1, the knights on f1 and h1 — both can reach g3, so the third half-move carries a letter. The engine takes the centre with d4, and White's edge here is a wide one, +42 centipawns: d4 d5 Nhg3 Nhg6 f3 c6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.