Starting position #945
Back-rank setup: BRKBRNNQ
SP-945 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
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 e1, the queen on h1.
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, f2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 11.
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 9 Morozov Balance Index: 9 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +44 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 874 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +46 → +16 → +4 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #11
- The king starts on c, the rooks on b and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 91 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a2 (a1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h5 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to c5 (b4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to d4 (f3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to d4 (f2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Mate in 2: knight to d5 (e3) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Winning blow: bishop to d6 (c7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Winning blow: knight to d6 (c4·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Mate in 3: rook to b5 (d5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Chess960 tactic on b5 — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 60
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Commentary
The king already stands on c1, so long castling moves the rook alone; the rooks are on b1 and e1. The queen begins in the corner on h1, and a bishop holds the opposite corner on a1 with its one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on d1. Two pawns begin without a defender, a2 and f2. The knights are on f1 and g1, and their reaches do not overlap, so the line writes Ng3 with no file letter. White's edge here is a wide one, +44 centipawns: f4 f5 Ng3 e6 e4 fxe4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.