White 14 vs Black 427
White starts from setup 14 (QNNRKBBR), Black from setup 427 (RNQNBKRB). In the encyclopedia since 2026-11-01: neither side starts better.
|cp| ≤ 5 at 400M · 800M · 1.6B · 4B nodes, two independent engines agree
How to play with different setups
White sets up the pieces by position No. 14, Black by position No. 427, mirrored on their own side; the pawns stand as usual.
Moves as usual: White starts; everything else follows the Chess960 rules.
The two setups
White: setup #14 Q N N R K B B R
King on the e-file, rooks on d, h, queen on the a-file; no bishop starts in a corner; the knights start on central files. Castling follows the Chess960 rule: king and rook end on the classical squares. In ordinary symmetric play setup 14 gives White +0.14 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #427 R N Q N B K R B
King on the f-file, rooks on a, g, queen on the c-file; one bishop starts in a corner; the knights start on central files. Castling follows the Chess960 rule: king and rook end on the classical squares. In ordinary symmetric play setup 427 gives White +0.29 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Why the pair is balanced
At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B nodes) the evaluation never left ±5 centipawns of equality, reaching search depth 50.
Admission rule: |cp| ≤ 5 at four budgets up to 4 billion nodes, no one-sided drift along the ladder, and confirmation by two independent engines — Berserk and Lc0 — each below its own median on symmetric positions. The same corridor is required at every deeper budget (8 G, 16 G) at which the pair has been evaluated.
The shallow rungs agreed early: from 100 thousand to 128 million nodes the evaluation never left ±13 cp.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 14 gives White +0.14 and setup 427 gives White +0.29: with both sides on the same rank the first move is worth something. In this pair Black's own setup absorbs that edge completely.
White is not forced into a single path: the best first move is f3, and 3 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the evaluation stayed within ±13 cp the whole way: the balance holds as the pieces come out, not only on move one.
Engine self-play agrees: 10 games, White won 0, drawn 9, Black won 1 (White scored 45.0%).
Verification ladder
Nine independent searches of the starting position, each with a larger node budget. Evaluation in centipawns from White's point of view.
| Stage | Nodes | Depth | Eval, cp | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S0 | 100 000 | 16 | +4 | 1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 Na6 3. e4 Nxc5 4. Nc3 d6 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 21 | -2 | 1. Nc3 c5 2. e3 g5 3. Qb1 d6 4. d4 Nd7 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 28 | -5 | 1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 Na6 3. e4 Nxc5 4. Nc3 g5 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 30 | +6 | 1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 Na6 3. e4 Nxc5 4. f3 g5 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 36 | -2 | 1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 Na6 3. e4 Nxc5 4. f3 g5 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 39 | +13 | 1. d4 c5 2. c3 Na6 3. a3 g6 4. h4 f5 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 44 | +5 | 1. f3 c5 2. c3 d6 3. d4 g6 4. e4 O-O |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 47 | -3 | 1. f3 c5 2. c3 d6 3. d4 g6 4. e4 O-O |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 50 | 0 | 1. f3 c5 2. c3 g5 3. e4 d6 4. d4 g4 |
Deep verification
The search ladder reaches 1.6 billion nodes; admission needs a 4-billion rung and two further engines on top of that. Beyond even that, every pair was re-checked at budgets up to ten times larger and in thousands of self-play games. This section shows what each check returned for this pair.
| Nodes | Eval, cp |
|---|---|
| 4 000 000 000 | 0 |
| 8 000 000 000 | not checked |
| 16 000 000 000 | not checked |
This pair stays within the ±5 cp corridor up to 4 000 000 000 nodes.
Independent engines, run on the same position:
- Berserk 14: 0
- Lc0 0.32.1: -3
Independent confirmations: 3 of 3. An engine counts as confirming when its reading of the pair is closer to equality than its own reading of a typical symmetric Chess960 position (+10 for Berserk, +18 for Lc0). Where only one engine confirms, the pair is balanced according to that engine alone, and this page says so.
Own weight of each setup, measured against the classical array: White +11, Black +28, difference -17. A balanced pair needs White's setup to be weaker by about the price of the first move.
Extended self-play: 10 games, 0 White wins, 9 draws, 1 Black wins, White scored 45.0%.
Best first moves
The 3 best first moves for White, searched together at 400 000 000 nodes.
| # | Eval, cp | Depth | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +11 | 41 | 1. f3 c5 2. c3 d6 3. d4 g6 4. e4 O-O 5. Na3 Nd7 |
| 2 | +16 | 40 | 1. c3 d6 2. d4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. e4 O-O 5. Na3 Nd7 |
| 3 | +12 | 40 | 1. d4 c5 2. c3 d6 3. f3 g6 4. e4 O-O 5. Na3 Nd7 |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 13 cp, mean 4.1 cp, final 0 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | d4 | -1 | c5 | 0 |
| 2 | dxc5 | -11 | Na6 | -12 |
| 3 | f3 | -10 | Nxc5 | -10 |
| 4 | e4 | -3 | d6 | -7 |
| 5 | Nb3 | -3 | Nde6 | -6 |
| 6 | Nxc5 | +1 | Nxc5 | 0 |
| 7 | Nc3 | -4 | g5 | -6 |
| 8 | Bd4 | -9 | Bxd4 | -13 |
| 9 | Rxd4 | -12 | g4 | -10 |
| 10 | Qc1 | 0 | gxf3 | -4 |
| 11 | gxf3 | -4 | Qe6 | -2 |
| 12 | Qe3 | 0 | Qf6 | -3 |
| 13 | Nd5 | -5 | Qh4+ | 0 |
| 14 | Qf2 | 0 | Qh6 | -3 |
| 15 | Qe3 | 0 | Rg6 | -8 |
| 16 | Qxh6+ | -6 | Rxh6 | -13 |
| 17 | Rd2 | -8 | Bc6 | -12 |
| 18 | Ne3 | -5 | Ne6 | -4 |
| 19 | h4 | 0 | a5 | 0 |
| 20 | b3 | 0 | Rf6 | 0 |
| 21 | Ke2 | 0 | a4 | 0 |
| 22 | b4 | +1 | a3 | +9 |
| 23 | Ng4 | +8 | Rf4 | +9 |
| 24 | Ne3 | +4 | Rf6 | +4 |
| 25 | Rg1 | 0 | Rc8 | 0 |
| 26 | Ng4 | 0 | Rg6 | 0 |
| 27 | Kf2 | 0 | b5 | 0 |
| 28 | Ne3 | 0 | Rf6 | 0 |
| 29 | Bd3 | 0 | Nd4 | +2 |
| 30 | Be2 | +12 | e5 | 0 |
Engine self-play
10 games at 500 000 nodes per move: White won 0, drawn 9, Black won 1 — White scored 45.0%. Average length 42.2 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. c3 d6 2. f3 g6 3. d4 O-O 4. e4 f5 5. Nd2 fxe4 6. Nxe4 d5 7. Ng3 Nbc6 8. Nd3 e5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Bc5 Rf7 11. Bf2 Bc6 12. Be2 Ne6 13. O-O Qf8 14. Rfe1 Re8 15. Qc1 b6 16. Nb4 Nf4 17. Nxc6 Nxc6 18. Bf1 Ne5 19. Kh1 Bg7 20. Be3 c6 21. b3 Nd7 22. c4 d4 23. Bf2 Rxe1 24. Rxe1 Bh6 25. Qb1 c5 26. b4 cxb4 27. Bxd4 Nc5 28. Bg1 Bg7 29. Ne4 Rd7 30. Nxc5 bxc5 31. g3 Nd3 32. Re3 Nb2 33. Qe4 Rd1 34. Be2 Rxg1+ 35. Kxg1 Bd4 36. Kg2 Bxe3 37. Qxe3 Qd6 38. Qe8+ Kg7 39. h4 h5 40. f4 a5
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. c3 O-O 2. e3 c5 3. f3 d5 4. d4 c4 5. b3 Nd7 6. Na3 Nb6 7. h4 g6 8. Ne2 f5 9. Qc1 cxb3 10. axb3 a5 11. Nf4 e5 12. dxe5 Bxe5 13. Nb5 Bxb5 14. Bxb5 Qc5 15. c4 Qb4+ 16. Ke2 Nf7 17. h5 dxc4 18. bxc4 Rfc8 19. Nd3 Qb3 20. hxg6 hxg6 21. Nxe5 Nxe5 22. Qb1 a4 23. e4 Nbxc4 24. Qxb3 axb3 25. Bd4 fxe4 26. Bxc4+ Nxc4 27. fxe4 Rd8 28. Rh8+ Kf7 29. Rh7+ Ke6 30. Rxb7 Ra2+ 31. Kf3 Ra6 32. Rxb3 Rad6 33. Rbd3 Nb2 34. Bxb2 Rxd3+ 35. Rxd3 Rxd3+ 36. Ke2 Rb3 37. Bd4 g5 38. g4 Rg3 39. Be3 Kf6 40. e5+ Kg6 41. e6 Rxg4 42. Kf3 Ra4 43. e7 g4+ 44. Kg3 Re4
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 14 / 427 in the app's encyclopedia, then choose how to play.
- Local game — two players on one device, with a clock.
- With a mentor — a clearly labelled training bot with hints, at your level.
- Challenge a friend — an online game by link; both players get the same pair, colours swap on rematch.
Play this pair against the computer, right here Play a friend
FEN (Shredder, castling rights by rook files): rnqnbkrb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/QNNRKBBR w DHag - 0 1
Mirror twin: White 948 vs Black 721 — a different position (castling squares are fixed), not evaluated by the search.
Current place in the live balance rating: 114.