White 310 vs Black 868
White starts from setup 310 (NQBRKBRN), Black from setup 868 (QBBRKRNN). In the encyclopedia since 2026-10-03: neither side starts better.
|cp| ≤ 5 at 400M · 800M · 1.6B · 4B nodes, two independent engines agree
The two setups
White: setup #310 N Q B R K B R N
King on the e-file, rooks on d, g, queen on the b-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 310 gives White +0.40 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #868 Q B B R K R N N
King on the e-file, rooks on d, f, queen on the a-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 868 gives White +0.75 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Why the pair is balanced
At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B nodes) the evaluation never left ±1 centipawns of equality, reaching search depth 59.
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 -19 and +5 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 310 gives White +0.40 and setup 868 gives White +0.75: 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 Ng3, and 2 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the largest swing was 42 cp (around move 7), ending at 0 cp — the position stays playable for both sides.
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.
| Stage | Nodes | Depth | Eval, cp | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S0 | 100 000 | 14 | +5 | 1. Ng3 f5 2. e3 Ng6 3. Be2 c5 4. b4 c4 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 17 | -1 | 1. Ng3 f5 2. e3 b6 3. c4 e6 4. b4 Nf6 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 21 | -13 | 1. Ng3 f5 2. e3 b6 3. c4 e6 4. b4 Nf6 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 26 | 0 | 1. Ng3 f5 2. d4 c5 3. c4 e6 4. dxc5 Nf6 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 34 | -19 | 1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. e3 a6 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 41 | -5 | 1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. e3 a6 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 48 | -1 | 1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. e3 Nf6 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 54 | 0 | 1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. e3 Nf6 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 59 | 0 | 1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. e3 Nf6 |
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 | not checked |
| 8 000 000 000 | not checked |
| 16 000 000 000 | not checked |
This pair held exactly 0.00 up to 1 600 000 000 nodes.
Independent engines, run on the same position:
- Berserk 14: -6
- Lc0 0.32.1: -1
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 +42, Black +79, difference -37. 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.
| # | Eval, cp | Depth | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | -7 | 44 | 1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. e3 Nf6 5. Bb5+ Bd7 |
| 2 | -13 | 44 | 1. c4 Nf6 2. Ng3 Ng6 3. d4 c5 4. d5 O-O 5. e4 b5 |
| 3 | -21 | 43 | 1. d4 Nf6 2. Ng3 d5 3. c4 c6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. e3 O-O |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 42 cp, mean 9.9 cp, final 0 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ng3 | +5 | f5 | 0 |
| 2 | d4 | +16 | b6 | -6 |
| 3 | c4 | +17 | Bb7 | +20 |
| 4 | d5 | -6 | g6 | +10 |
| 5 | e4 | +7 | fxe4 | +8 |
| 6 | Qxe4 | +37 | Nf7 | +41 |
| 7 | Qh4 | +42 | c6 | +24 |
| 8 | dxc6 | +31 | Bxc6 | +27 |
| 9 | Nb3 | +22 | Nf6 | +24 |
| 10 | Nd4 | +25 | Bd6 | +25 |
| 11 | Be2 | +21 | Bc5 | +27 |
| 12 | Nxc6 | +18 | dxc6 | +23 |
| 13 | a3 | +19 | a5 | +19 |
| 14 | O-O | +19 | Qc8 | +10 |
| 15 | Rxd8+ | +12 | Qxd8 | +3 |
| 16 | Rd1 | 0 | Qc8 | 0 |
| 17 | Bd2 | +7 | O-O | 0 |
| 18 | b4 | 0 | axb4 | 0 |
| 19 | axb4 | 0 | Bd6 | 0 |
| 20 | Ne4 | +9 | Qe6 | 0 |
| 21 | Nxf6+ | 0 | exf6 | 0 |
| 22 | Bf3 | 0 | Rd8 | -1 |
| 23 | Be3 | -1 | Bxb4 | 0 |
| 24 | Rxd8+ | 0 | Nxd8 | -8 |
| 25 | Qd4 | 0 | Be7 | 0 |
| 26 | g3 | 0 | h5 | -7 |
| 27 | h4 | 0 | Kg7 | 0 |
| 28 | Qxb6 | 0 | Qxc4 | 0 |
| 29 | Qa7 | 0 | Qe6 | 0 |
| 30 | Bc5 | 0 | Kf8 | 0 |
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 45.0 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nh5 g6 4. Ng7+ Kd7 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. d4 e6 7. Qd3 Ke7 8. g4 f6 9. Nh5 Bxh2 10. Rh1 Bd6 11. Nf4 Rf7 12. Bd2 Kf8 13. Nc2 Bd7 14. e3 Ne7 15. O-O-O Kg8 16. f3 e5 17. dxe5 fxe5 18. Bc3 Qc8 19. Be2 Bc7 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. Qxd5 Bxg4 22. Qe4 Rxd1+ 23. Rxd1 Bf5 24. Qh4 Rf8 25. Rh1 Rf7 26. Kb1 Be6 27. Qh2 h5 28. b3 Rd7 29. Qg3 Bd6 30. Bb2 Bb8 31. Rc1 Qf8 32. Bxe5 Bxe5 33. Qxe5 Qd6 34. Qxd6 Rxd6 35. Nd4 Bd7 36. Kc2 Nf7 37. Kd2 h4 38. Ke1 b6 39. Rc7 a5 40. f4 h3
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. Ng3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nh5 g6 4. Ng7+ Kd7 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. d4 e6 7. Qd3 Ke7 8. g4 f6 9. Nh5 Bxh2 10. Rh1 Bd6 11. Nf4 Rf7 12. Bd2 Kf8 13. Nc2 Bd7 14. e3 Ne7 15. O-O-O Kg8 16. f3 e5 17. dxe5 fxe5 18. Bc3 Qc8 19. Be2 Bc7 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. Qxd5 Bxg4 22. Qe4 Rxd1+ 23. Rxd1 Bf5 24. Qh4 Rf8 25. Rh1 Rf7 26. Kb1 Be6 27. Qh2 h5 28. b3 Rd7 29. Qg3 Bd6 30. Bb2 Bb8 31. Rc1 Qf8 32. Bxe5 Bxe5 33. Qxe5 Qd6 34. Qxd6 Rxd6 35. Nd4 Bd7 36. Kc2 Nf7 37. Kd2 h4 38. Ke1 b6 39. Rc7 a5 40. f4 h3
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 310 / 868 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): qbbrkrnn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQBRKBRN w DGdf - 0 1
Mirror twin (the same position mirrored): White 358 vs Black 94.