White 326 vs Black 486
White starts from setup 326 (NRBQKBRN), Black from setup 486 (QRBNKBNR). In the encyclopedia since 2026-10-21: neither side starts better.
|cp| ≤ 5 at 400M · 800M · 1.6B · 4B nodes, two independent engines agree
The two setups
White: setup #326 N R B Q K B R N
King on the e-file, rooks on b, g, queen on the d-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 326 gives White +0.16 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #486 Q R B N K B N R
King on the e-file, rooks on b, 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 486 gives White +0.17 (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 55.
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 wandered between -18 and +13 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 326 gives White +0.16 and setup 486 gives White +0.17: 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 38 cp (around move 5), ending at +19 cp — the position stays playable for both sides.
Engine self-play agrees: 10 games, White won 1, drawn 9, Black won 0 (White scored 55.0%).
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 | -18 | 1. d4 Nf6 2. f3 c5 3. c3 d5 4. Bf4 Bd7 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 18 | +3 | 1. e3 c5 2. Be2 b5 3. O-O e6 4. c3 c4 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 24 | +3 | 1. e3 b5 2. b4 a5 3. bxa5 Qxa5 4. c4 Qxa2 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 29 | +13 | 1. e3 b5 2. b4 Nf6 3. Be2 a5 4. bxa5 Qxa5 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 34 | -7 | 1. e3 g6 2. Be2 Bg7 3. O-O b6 4. c4 c5 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 42 | 0 | 1. b4 b6 2. e3 Nf6 3. Be2 g6 4. c4 Bg7 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 47 | -1 | 1. b4 b6 2. e3 Nf6 3. Be2 g6 4. O-O Bg7 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 50 | 0 | 1. b4 b6 2. e3 Nf6 3. c4 c5 4. Be2 cxb4 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 55 | 0 | 1. b4 b6 2. e3 g6 3. Bb2 Nf6 4. c4 Bg7 |
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: +9
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 +29, difference -40. A balanced pair needs White's setup to be weaker by about the price of the first move.
Extended self-play: 10 games, 1 White wins, 9 draws, 0 Black wins, White scored 55.0%.
Best first moves
The 3 best first moves for White, searched together at 400 000 000 nodes.
| # | Eval, cp | Depth | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +10 | 43 | 1. b4 b6 2. e3 g6 3. Bb2 Nf6 4. Be2 Bg7 5. c4 O-O |
| 2 | +6 | 43 | 1. d4 |
| 3 | +5 | 43 | 1. e3 g6 2. Be2 Bg7 3. O-O b5 4. b4 a5 5. bxa5 Qxa5 |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 38 cp, mean 27.2 cp, final +19 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | e3 | +7 | c5 | +1 |
| 2 | b4 | +19 | cxb4 | +24 |
| 3 | Rxb4 | +29 | Nf6 | +24 |
| 4 | Bb2 | +35 | a5 | +37 |
| 5 | Rb3 | +38 | a4 | +27 |
| 6 | Rb5 | +26 | b6 | +25 |
| 7 | Be5 | +25 | Ba6 | +28 |
| 8 | Bxb8 | +34 | Qxb8 | +36 |
| 9 | Ng3 | +35 | Bxb5 | +28 |
| 10 | Bxb5 | +31 | e6 | +31 |
| 11 | h3 | +29 | a3 | +20 |
| 12 | O-O | +32 | Be7 | +23 |
| 13 | Nh5 | +28 | Nxh5 | +27 |
| 14 | Qxh5 | +33 | g6 | +25 |
| 15 | Qe2 | +30 | Nc6 | +30 |
| 16 | c3 | +30 | O-O | +27 |
| 17 | Rb1 | +27 | Rd8 | +24 |
| 18 | Nb3 | +27 | Bf8 | +25 |
| 19 | Qc4 | +25 | Qb7 | +28 |
| 20 | Qf4 | +28 | h5 | +32 |
| 21 | g3 | +36 | Ra8 | +29 |
| 22 | Qe4 | +31 | Qc7 | +25 |
| 23 | Qf4 | +29 | Qb7 | +37 |
| 24 | h4 | +37 | Rc8 | +20 |
| 25 | Nc1 | +24 | Na5 | +23 |
| 26 | Nd3 | +22 | d6 | +24 |
| 27 | Qa4 | +25 | d5 | +30 |
| 28 | Ne5 | +27 | Bg7 | +26 |
| 29 | Nf3 | +29 | Bf8 | +25 |
| 30 | Ne5 | +27 | Bg7 | +19 |
Engine self-play
10 games at 500 000 nodes per move: White won 1, drawn 9, Black won 0 — White scored 55.0%. Average length 45.8 moves.
Sample game 1 (1-0)
1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 h5 3. Bf4 b6 4. g3 bxc5 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. Bxb8 Bxg2 7. Bf4 Bxh1 8. f3 Bxf3 9. exf3 Nf6 10. Nb3 Qc6 11. Na5 Qb6 12. Nc4 Qb4+ 13. Nd2 e6 14. c3 Qb5 15. Ne4 Nd5 16. Bd6 f5 17. Bxf8 Kxf8 18. Nd6 Qb8 19. Nc4 Nf7 20. Qb3 Ke7 21. O-O-O Qxb3 22. axb3 Nb6 23. Rge1 g5 24. h3 d6 25. Kc2 Nxc4 26. bxc4 Ne5 27. f4 gxf4 28. gxf4 Nxc4 29. b3 Nb6 30. c4 Ra8 31. Rg1 d5 32. Rg6 Kd6 33. Re1 Re8 34. Rg5 Rh8 35. Kc3 a5 36. Ra1 Ra8 37. Rxh5 d4+ 38. Kd3 Rg8 39. Rxa5 Rg3+ 40. Kc2 Rg2+ 41. Kd1 Rg1+ 42. Ke2 Rg2+ 43. Kf3 Rc2 44. Rb5 Rc3+ 45. Ke2 Re3+ 46. Kd1 Kc6 47. Rh8 Rd3+ 48. Kc2 Rc3+ 49. Kb2 Re3 50. h4 Re2+ 51. Kc1 Nd7 52. Rc8+ Kd6 53. b4 cxb4 54. c5+ Nxc5 55. Rbxc5 b3 56. R8c6+ Kd7 57. Rb6 Rf2 58. Rxb3 Rxf4 59. Rh3 Rf1+ 60. Kd2 Rf2+ 61. Ke1 Ra2 62. h5 Kd6 63. Rc8 Ra1+ 64. Kd2 Ra2+ 65. Rc2 Ra7 66. h6 Rh7 67. Rc8 Ke5 68. Rf8 d3 69. Rh4 Kd6 70. Rg8 f4 71. Rg7 Rh8 72. h7 f3 73. Kxd3 f2 74. Ke2 Kc6 75. Kxf2 Rf8+ 76. Ke3 Ra8
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 b6 3. Bf4 bxc5 4. Bxb8 Qxb8 5. g3 Nf6 6. Nb3 h5 7. e3 d5 8. c4 d4 9. exd4 cxd4 10. Nxd4 e5 11. Nc2 Qc7 12. b4 a5 13. c5 axb4 14. Bb5+ Nd7 15. O-O Bxc5 16. Nxb4 O-O 17. Bxd7 Qxd7 18. Qxd7 Bxd7 19. Nd3 Bd4 20. Rb8 g5 21. Rd1 Ba4 22. Rc1 Ne6 23. Rxf8+ Kxf8 24. Kg2 e4 25. Nb4 f5 26. Nd5 Bb5 27. h4 gxh4 28. Nc7 Nxc7 29. Rxc7 Ke8 30. a4 Bd3 31. a5 Kd8 32. Rc1 Ke8 33. Rc7 Kd8 34. Rf7 Ke8
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 326 / 486 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): qrbnkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRBQKBRN w BGbh - 0 1
Mirror twin: White 342 vs Black 566 — a different position (castling squares are fixed), not evaluated by the search.