White 60 vs Black 841
White starts from setup 60 (NBNRQKBR), Black from setup 841 (RKNBBRQN). In the encyclopedia since 2026-11-01: neither side starts better.
|cp| ≤ 5 at 400M · 800M · 1.6B · 4B nodes, two independent engines agree
How to play with different setups
White sets up the pieces by position No. 60, Black by position No. 841, mirrored on their own side; the pawns stand as usual.
Moves as usual: White starts; everything else follows the Chess960 rules.
The two setups
White: setup #60 N B N R Q K B R
King on the f-file, rooks on d, h, queen on the e-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 60 gives White +0.22 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #841 R K N B B R Q N
King on the b-file, rooks on a, f, queen on the g-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 841 gives White +0.24 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Why the pair is balanced
At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B nodes) the evaluation never left ±4 centipawns of equality, reaching search depth 56.
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 -14 and +27 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 60 gives White +0.22 and setup 841 gives White +0.24: 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 Nab3, and 3 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the evaluation stayed within ±27 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 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 | 17 | -14 | 1. f3 f5 2. d4 g5 3. Bf2 Nb6 4. Nab3 Ng6 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 19 | +1 | 1. f3 f5 2. d4 a5 3. Nab3 d6 4. Bf2 g5 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 23 | +20 | 1. f3 f5 2. d4 a5 3. Nab3 a4 4. Nd2 Ng6 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 27 | +27 | 1. d4 f5 2. Nab3 a5 3. f3 a4 4. Nd2 Ng6 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 33 | +13 | 1. d4 f5 2. Nab3 g5 3. f3 a5 4. Nxa5 Ng6 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 39 | +13 | 1. d4 f5 2. Nab3 a5 3. Nxa5 g5 4. f3 Ng6 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 45 | -4 | 1. d4 f5 2. f3 g5 3. Bf2 Ng6 4. O-O a5 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 49 | 0 | 1. d4 f5 2. Nab3 g5 3. f3 a5 4. Nxa5 Ng6 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 56 | 0 | 1. d4 f5 2. f3 g5 3. Bf2 Ng6 4. Nab3 a5 |
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: +3
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 +92, Black +69, difference +23. 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 | +8 | 42 | 1. Nab3 f5 2. d4 g5 3. f3 Ng6 4. Bf2 a5 5. O-O a4 |
| 2 | +8 | 42 | 1. d4 f5 2. f3 g5 3. Nab3 Ng6 4. Bf2 a5 5. O-O a4 |
| 3 | +2 | 42 | 1. f3 f5 2. d4 g5 3. Bf2 a5 4. Nab3 a4 5. Nd2 Ng6 |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 27 cp, mean 4.9 cp, final 0 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | d4 | +27 | f5 | +8 |
| 2 | f3 | +8 | a5 | -6 |
| 3 | Bf2 | 0 | g5 | +1 |
| 4 | O-O | +2 | Ng6 | -5 |
| 5 | Nab3 | -4 | a4 | -9 |
| 6 | Nd2 | -4 | e6 | -13 |
| 7 | c4 | -7 | h5 | +1 |
| 8 | Nd3 | +5 | g4 | +9 |
| 9 | e3 | +17 | d6 | +20 |
| 10 | fxg4 | +26 | hxg4 | +16 |
| 11 | Bg3 | +13 | Qh7 | +17 |
| 12 | Rf2 | +13 | Bh4 | +12 |
| 13 | Bxh4 | +12 | Qxh4 | +14 |
| 14 | Nf1 | +17 | Qh6 | +6 |
| 15 | Nf4 | +2 | Bd7 | 0 |
| 16 | Qc3 | 0 | Nce7 | 0 |
| 17 | b4 | 0 | axb3 | 0 |
| 18 | Nxg6 | 0 | Nxg6 | 0 |
| 19 | axb3 | 0 | e5 | 0 |
| 20 | b4 | 0 | exd4 | 0 |
| 21 | Qxd4 | 0 | Ne5 | 0 |
| 22 | Rf4 | 0 | Ng6 | 0 |
| 23 | Rf2 | 0 | Bc8 | -1 |
| 24 | c5 | 0 | dxc5 | 0 |
| 25 | Qxc5 | 0 | b6 | 0 |
| 26 | Qc3 | 0 | Ra7 | 0 |
| 27 | Rfd2 | 0 | Qh8 | 0 |
| 28 | Qxh8 | 0 | Nxh8 | +1 |
| 29 | Ng3 | 0 | Ng6 | 0 |
| 30 | Kf2 | 0 | Ra1 | 0 |
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 50.4 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. f3 f5 2. Bf2 a5 3. d4 a4 4. O-O d6 5. c3 g5 6. Nc2 Ng6 7. Nd3 Bd7 8. Ncb4 f4 9. b3 g4 10. Qd2 c6 11. c4 Bc7 12. Kh1 Qg7 13. fxg4 Bxg4 14. bxa4 e6 15. h3 Bh5 16. Rg1 Nce7 17. Ne1 O-O 18. Nf3 Qf6 19. Nd3 Rxa4 20. Qc2 Ra3 21. Qb2 Ra7 22. c5 d5 23. Nde5 Nxe5 24. dxe5 Qh6 25. Kh2 Ng6 26. Rd3 Qg7 27. Bd4 Bd8 28. g4 fxg3+ 29. Rxg3 Bxf3 30. Rdxf3 Rxf3 31. exf3 Qf7 32. f4 Qxf4 33. Be3 Qf7 34. Qg2 Kg7 35. Kh1 Ra4 36. Rf3 Qe7 37. Rf1 d4 38. Bd2 d3 39. Bxd3 Qxc5 40. Bc2 Rxa2 41. Bb3 Ra8 42. Bxe6 Be7 43. Qf3 Kh8 44. Bf7 Ra3 45. Bb3 Ra8 46. Bf7 Ra3 47. Bb3 Ra8
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. f3 d6 2. d4 h5 3. c4 f5 4. c5 a5 5. Bf2 g5 6. O-O Ng6 7. Nd3 g4 8. Nc2 e6 9. Qd2 Bb5 10. Na3 Bxd3 11. Bxd3 Nf4 12. Bg3 Nxd3 13. Qxd3 f4 14. Be1 g3 15. hxg3 fxg3 16. Nc4 h4 17. f4 Qg4 18. Nxa5 c6 19. Nc4 Rxf4 20. Bc3 h3 21. cxd6 Rf2 22. gxh3 Rxf1+ 23. Kxf1 Qxh3+ 24. Ke1 Qh2 25. Kd2 g2 26. d5 exd5 27. d7 Qf4+ 28. Kc2 Qxc4 29. Qxc4 dxc4 30. Be5+ Ka7 31. dxc8=Q Rxc8 32. Rg1 Bc7 33. Bxc7 Rxc7 34. Rxg2 Re7 35. Kc3 Re4 36. a4 Ka6 37. Rg5 Rxe2 38. a5 Rf2 39. Rh5 Re2 40. Rf5 Re4
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 60 / 841 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): rknbbrqn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NBNRQKBR w DHaf - 0 1
Mirror twin: White 908 vs Black 121 — a different position (castling squares are fixed), not evaluated by the search.
Current place in the live balance rating: 262.