White 317 vs Black 79
White starts from setup 317 (NQRBKRBN), Black from setup 79 (NNRKQRBB). 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 #317 N Q R B K R B N
King on the e-file, rooks on c, f, 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 317 gives White +0.43 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #79 N N R K Q R B B
King on the d-file, rooks on c, f, queen on the e-file; one 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 79 gives White +0.36 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Why the pair is balanced
At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B nodes) the evaluation never left ±2 centipawns of equality, reaching search depth 54.
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 -25 and +45 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 317 gives White +0.43 and setup 79 gives White +0.36: 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 b4, and 3 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the largest swing was 31 cp (around move 4), 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 | +45 | 1. f4 f5 2. Bxa7 Qg6 3. Bxb8 Rxb8 4. O-O Qd6 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 17 | +2 | 1. f4 f5 2. Bxa7 Qg6 3. Bxb8 Rxb8 4. Ng3 Qa6 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 21 | -25 | 1. f4 f5 2. Bxa7 Qg6 3. Bxb8 Rxb8 4. Ng3 Qa6 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 30 | -21 | 1. c3 f5 2. f3 Nb6 3. a4 Nc6 4. b4 g5 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 35 | 0 | 1. c3 f5 2. f3 Nc6 3. b4 g5 4. Bc2 Qf7 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 40 | 0 | 1. f3 f5 2. c3 Nb6 3. a4 Qh5 4. Ng3 Qh4 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 44 | +2 | 1. f3 f5 2. c3 Nb6 3. a4 a6 4. Bf2 f4 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 50 | 0 | 1. f3 f5 2. c3 Nb6 3. a4 a6 4. b4 d5 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 54 | 0 | 1. f3 f5 2. c3 Nb6 3. a4 a6 4. b4 d5 |
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: 0
- Lc0 0.32.1: +2
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 -6, Black +109, difference -115. 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 | -14 | 41 | 1. b4 |
| 2 | -21 | 41 | 1. c3 f5 2. f3 Nb6 3. a4 a6 4. b4 d5 5. Nb3 O-O-O |
| 3 | -24 | 41 | 1. f3 f5 2. c3 Nb6 3. a4 a6 4. b4 d5 5. Bd4 e5 |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 31 cp, mean 4.9 cp, final 0 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | c3 | -25 | f5 | -17 |
| 2 | f3 | -1 | Nb6 | 0 |
| 3 | a4 | +7 | g5 | +15 |
| 4 | Bc2 | +18 | Qf7 | -31 |
| 5 | Nb3 | -17 | f4 | -5 |
| 6 | Na5 | +7 | O-O-O | -8 |
| 7 | Nf2 | +25 | d5 | +14 |
| 8 | b4 | +20 | N8d7 | +17 |
| 9 | Nd3 | +20 | Nc4 | +8 |
| 10 | Nxc4 | +7 | dxc4 | +4 |
| 11 | Nc5 | +8 | Nxc5 | +3 |
| 12 | bxc5 | 0 | Qd5 | +9 |
| 13 | O-O-O | 0 | Qd7 | 0 |
| 14 | g4 | 0 | Kb8 | 0 |
| 15 | Qb4 | 0 | c6 | 0 |
| 16 | Bf5 | 0 | Rxf5 | 0 |
| 17 | gxf5 | 0 | Qxf5 | 0 |
| 18 | d4 | -6 | cxd3 | 0 |
| 19 | Rxd3 | 0 | Rxd3 | 0 |
| 20 | exd3 | 0 | Bf6 | 0 |
| 21 | Re1 | 0 | Bd5 | 0 |
| 22 | Bd4 | 0 | e5 | 0 |
| 23 | a5 | 0 | Kc8 | 0 |
| 24 | a6 | 0 | bxa6 | 0 |
| 25 | Qa5 | 0 | Qxd3 | 0 |
| 26 | Bxe5 | 0 | Bd8 | 0 |
| 27 | Qb4 | 0 | Qb5 | 0 |
| 28 | Qd4 | 0 | Qa5 | 0 |
| 29 | Bf6 | 0 | Qa1+ | 0 |
| 30 | Kd2 | 0 | Qb2+ | 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 41.5 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. f4 f5 2. Bxa7 Qg6 3. Bxb8 Rxb8 4. Ng3 Qa6 5. Nb3 Nb6 6. c3 g6 7. O-O Ra8 8. e4 c6 9. exf5 Qxa2 10. Qc2 Bxb3 11. Qxb3 Qxb3 12. Bxb3 gxf5 13. Ra1 Rb8 14. Rf3 e6 15. Ne2 Bg7 16. Rh3 Rh8 17. Rh5 d5 18. Re1 Ke7 19. g4 fxg4 20. Ng3 Kd7 21. d4 Rbf8 22. f5 exf5 23. Nxf5 Rf7 24. Rf1 Kc7 25. Rf2 h6 26. Bd1 Nc4 27. Bxg4 b5 28. b3 Na3 29. Rh3 b4 30. Bh5 Rd7 31. Rg3 Bf8 32. cxb4 Bxb4 33. Rg6 Rf8 34. Rxh6 Nb5 35. Rf3 Bc3 36. Kg2 Rdd8 37. Bg4 Rg8 38. h3 Ra8 39. Ne7 Ra2+ 40. Kf1 Ra1+ 41. Kg2 Ra2+ 42. Kh1
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. f4 f5 2. Bxa7 Qg6 3. Bxb8 Rxb8 4. Ng3 Qa6 5. Nb3 Nb6 6. c3 g6 7. O-O Ra8 8. e4 c6 9. exf5 Qxa2 10. Qc2 Bxb3 11. Qxb3 Qxb3 12. Bxb3 gxf5 13. Ra1 Rb8 14. Rf3 e6 15. Ne2 Bg7 16. Rh3 Rh8 17. Rh5 d5 18. Re1 Ke7 19. g4 fxg4 20. Ng3 Kd7 21. d4 Rbf8 22. f5 exf5 23. Nxf5 Rf7 24. Rf1 Kc7 25. Rf2 h6 26. Bd1 Nc4 27. Bxg4 b5 28. b3 Na3 29. Rh3 b4 30. Bh5 Rd7 31. Rg3 Bf8 32. cxb4 Bxb4 33. Rg6 Rf8 34. Rxh6 Nb5 35. Rf3 Bc3 36. Kg2 Rdd8 37. Bg4 Rg8 38. h3 Ra8 39. Ne7 Ra2+ 40. Kf1 Ra1+ 41. Kg2 Ra2+ 42. Kh1
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 317 / 79 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): nnrkqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQRBKRBN w CFcf - 0 1
Mirror twin (the same position mirrored): White 360 vs Black 880.