White 216 vs Black 192

The two setups

White: setup #216 N B Q R B K N R

King on the f-file, rooks on d, h, queen on the c-file; no bishop starts in a corner; the knights start away from the centre. Castling follows the Chess960 rule: king and rook end on the classical squares. In ordinary symmetric play setup 216 gives White +0.32 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).

Black: setup #192 B B Q N R K N R

King on the f-file, rooks on e, h, 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 192 gives White +0.18 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).

Why the pair is balanced

At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B nodes) the evaluation is exactly 0.00 each time, reaching search depth 60.

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 shallow rungs wandered between 0 and +21 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.

For comparison, in symmetric play setup 216 gives White +0.32 and setup 192 gives White +0.18: with both sides on the same rank the first move is worth something. In this pair Black's own setup absorbs that edge completely.

The engine's first choice for White is d4; the alternatives are slightly weaker but keep the game level.

Along the engine's main line (11 moves) the evaluation stayed within ±0 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 10, Black won 0 (White scored 50.0%).

Verification ladder

Nine independent searches of the starting position, each with a larger node budget. Evaluation in centipawns from White's point of view.

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.

This pair held exactly 0.00 up to 1 600 000 000 nodes.

Independent engines, run on the same position:

• Berserk 14: 0
• Lc0 0.32.1: +6

Independent confirmations: 2 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 +112, Black +148, difference -36. 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, 10 draws, 0 Black wins, White scored 50.0%.

Best first moves

The 3 best first moves for White, searched together at 400 000 000 nodes.

Main-line play-out

11 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 0 cp, mean 0.0 cp, final 0 cp.

Engine self-play

10 games at 500 000 nodes per move: White won 0, drawn 10, Black won 0 — White scored 50.0%. Average length 25.1 moves.

1. d4 b6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Bc3 b5 5. b3 Ne7 6. d6 Nf5 7. Bxf5 exf5 8. Bxg7+ Kxg7 9. Qg5+ Kf8 10. Qh6+ Kg8 11. Qg5+ Kf8 12. Qh6+ Kg8 13. Qg5+

1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 h5 3. Nb3 Ne6 4. f3 Nf6 5. Bf2 h4 6. Nh3 Rh5 7. c3 g6 8. Qd2 Kg7 9. Bc2 b6 10. cxb6 axb6 11. Nd4 Bd5 12. a4 Qc7 13. O-O-O Nxd4 14. Bxd4 e5 15. Be3 b5 16. g4 hxg3 17. hxg3 bxa4 18. g4 a3 19. b4 Rhh8 20. Nf2 Rxh1 21. Rxh1 Qc4 22. Bh6+ Kg8 23. Bg7 Nh7 24. Qh6 Qf4+ 25. Kb1 Qxh6 26. Bxh6 Rc8 27. Bd2 Bd6 28. Rc1 Be6 29. Ka1 f5 30. Bb1 Nf6 31. gxf5 gxf5 32. Nh3 e4 33. Ng5 Bc4 34. fxe4 fxe4 35. Ba2 Be7 36. Rd1 d5 37. Rc1 Kf8 38. Rh1 Ke8 39. Rh8+ Kd7 40. Rxc8 Kxc8 41. Bxc4 dxc4 42. e3 Kd7 43. Ka2 Kc6 44. Kxa3 Kb5 45. Ne6 Nd5 46. Nd4+ Ka6 47. Nf5 Kb5 48. Ng3 Nf6 49. Nf5

Play it in the CH960 app

Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 216 / 192 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): bbqnrknr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NBQRBKNR w DHeh - 0 1

Mirror twin (the same position mirrored): White 653 vs Black 671.

Current place in the live balance rating: 159.