White 334 vs Black 578

The two setups

White: setup #334 N R Q K R B B N

King on the d-file, rooks on b, e, 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 334 gives White +0.25 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).

Black: setup #578 B Q R N K B R N

King on the e-file, rooks on c, g, queen on the b-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 578 gives White +0.56 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).

Why the pair is balanced

At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B, 3.2B nodes) the evaluation is exactly 0.00 each time, reaching search depth 63.

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 -30 and +32 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.

For comparison, in symmetric play setup 334 gives White +0.25 and setup 578 gives White +0.56: 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 (30 moves) the evaluation stayed within ±22 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: +9
• Lc0 0.32.1: -14

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 +41, Black +94, difference -53. 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

30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 22 cp, mean 7.3 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 39.0 moves.

1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 e6 3. Qd2 Bxc5 4. Nb3 Be7 5. O-O-O O-O 6. f4 Ng6 7. g3 b5 8. e4 Nc6 9. Kb1 Rfd8 10. Qe2 b4 11. Nf2 d6 12. Ng4 Nf8 13. Ne3 Nd7 14. Qb5 Qxb5 15. Bxb5 Rb8 16. Bf1 a5 17. Nd5 Bf8 18. Nc7 Bb7 19. Nd2 Nf6 20. Nc4 Nxe4 21. Rxe4 d5 22. Ree1 dxc4 23. Bxc4 a4 24. Na6 Rbc8 25. Rxd8 Nxd8 26. Bb5 a3 27. Rd1 Be4 28. Rd2 Nb7 29. Bd3 Bd5 30. b3 g6 31. Bb6 h5 32. Kc1 Bf3 33. Rf2 Bd5 34. Rd2 Be7 35. Bb5 h4 36. gxh4 Be4 37. Bc7 Bd5 38. Bb6 Be4 39. Bd4 Bd5

1. d4 e6 2. Qd2 c5 3. dxc5 Bxc5 4. O-O-O O-O 5. Nb3 Be7 6. f4 b5 7. e4 Ng6 8. g3 Nc6 9. Kb1 Rfd8 10. Qe2 b4 11. Nf2 d6 12. Ng4 Nf8 13. Ne3 a5 14. Qb5 Nd7 15. Nd5 Bf8 16. Qxb8 Rxb8 17. Nc7 Bb7 18. Nd2 Nf6 19. Nc4 Nxe4 20. Rxe4 d5 21. Ree1 dxc4 22. Bxc4 a4 23. Na6 Rbc8 24. Be2 Rxd1+ 25. Rxd1 Na5 26. b3 axb3 27. axb3 Be4 28. Bd3 Bb7 29. Be3 h5 30. Bd2 Nc6 31. Be3 Na5 32. Bd4 Nc6 33. Bf2 Na5 34. Bd4 Bd6 35. Bg1 Bf8

Play it in the CH960 app

Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 334 / 578 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): bqrnkbrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRQKRBBN w BEcg - 0 1

Mirror twin (the same position mirrored): White 340 vs Black 279.

Current place in the live balance rating: 451.