White 74 vs Black 365
White starts from setup 74 (NNRKBBQR), Black from setup 365 (NRKBRQBN). In the encyclopedia since 2026-10-03: 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. 74, Black by position No. 365, 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 #74 N N R K B B Q R
King on the d-file, rooks on c, h, 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 74 gives White +0.25 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #365 N R K B R Q B N
King on the c-file, rooks on b, e, queen on the f-file; no bishop starts in a corner; the knights start away from the centre. The king already stands on a castled square, so one of the castlings moves only the rook. In ordinary symmetric play setup 365 gives White +0.39 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Why the pair is balanced
At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B, 3.2B nodes) the evaluation never left ±3 centipawns of equality, reaching search depth 60.
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 agreed early: from 100 thousand to 128 million nodes the evaluation never left ±12 cp.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 74 gives White +0.25 and setup 365 gives White +0.39: 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 c4, and 3 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the evaluation stayed within ±13 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 9, Black won 1 (White scored 45.0%).
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 | 15 | +9 | 1. f3 c6 2. Bf2 Nc7 3. e4 f5 4. exf5 Qxf5 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 18 | 0 | 1. e4 c6 2. f3 Bb6 3. Bf2 O-O-O 4. Nb3 e5 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 23 | -2 | 1. e4 c6 2. f4 Bb6 3. d4 f6 4. c4 e5 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 28 | 0 | 1. f3 e5 2. e4 c6 3. Qxa7 f5 4. c4 Nc7 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 34 | +12 | 1. f3 e5 2. Bf2 Nb6 3. e4 f5 4. Nc3 Be7 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 47 | 0 | 1. f3 c6 2. c4 e5 3. Qxa7 Nc7 4. Nc3 Ra8 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 52 | 0 | 1. f3 c6 2. c4 e5 3. Qxa7 Nc7 4. Nc3 Ra8 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 52 | +2 | 1. f3 c6 2. c4 e5 3. Qxa7 Nc7 4. Nc3 Ra8 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 54 | +3 | 1. f3 f5 2. c4 b6 3. d4 e5 4. d5 e4 |
| S9 | 3 200 000 000 | 60 | 0 | 1. f3 c6 2. c4 f5 3. Qxa7 Qf6 4. Bf2 Nc7 |
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: -6
- Lc0 0.32.1: +2
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 +52, Black +67, difference -15. 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, 9 draws, 1 Black wins, White scored 45.0%.
Best first moves
The 3 best first moves for White, searched together at 400 000 000 nodes.
| # | Eval, cp | Depth | Main line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 47 | 1. c4 f5 2. f3 c6 3. Qxa7 Nc7 4. Nc3 Ra8 5. Na4 Rxa7 |
| 2 | 0 | 47 | 1. f3 c6 2. c4 f5 3. Qxa7 Nc7 4. Nc3 Ra8 5. Na4 Rxa7 |
| 3 | 0 | 46 | 1. Nb3 c6 2. f3 Bb6 3. e3 e5 4. c4 f5 5. Nc3 Nc7 |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 13 cp, mean 2.6 cp, final 0 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | f3 | -10 | e5 | +3 |
| 2 | Nb3 | +10 | c6 | +4 |
| 3 | Nc3 | -7 | f5 | -9 |
| 4 | Qxa7 | -13 | Nb6 | -9 |
| 5 | Na4 | +1 | Nxa4 | -7 |
| 6 | Qxa4 | -6 | Bb6 | 0 |
| 7 | c4 | 0 | f4 | 0 |
| 8 | a3 | 0 | Kc7 | +4 |
| 9 | Qb4 | 0 | Qxb4 | +3 |
| 10 | axb4 | +9 | Ra8 | +8 |
| 11 | Nc5 | +8 | Ra2 | -9 |
| 12 | g3 | 0 | Rxb2 | -6 |
| 13 | Na4 | -7 | Rxb4 | -5 |
| 14 | Nxb6 | -10 | Kxb6 | -2 |
| 15 | d3 | 0 | Ra4 | -5 |
| 16 | Rb1+ | 0 | Kc7 | 0 |
| 17 | gxf4 | 0 | exf4 | 0 |
| 18 | Bd2 | 0 | b5 | 0 |
| 19 | cxb5 | 0 | Rb8 | 0 |
| 20 | b6+ | 0 | Rxb6 | 0 |
| 21 | Rxb6 | 0 | Kxb6 | 0 |
| 22 | Bc3 | 0 | Ng6 | 0 |
| 23 | Bxg7 | 0 | Be6 | 0 |
| 24 | Ke1 | 0 | Ra7 | 0 |
| 25 | Bh6 | 0 | d6 | 0 |
| 26 | h4 | 0 | Rf7 | 0 |
| 27 | h5 | 0 | Ne7 | 0 |
| 28 | Bg5 | 0 | Nd5 | 0 |
| 29 | Rh4 | 0 | c5 | 0 |
| 30 | Kf2 | 0 | Bd7 | 0 |
Engine self-play
10 games at 500 000 nodes per move: White won 0, drawn 9, Black won 1 — White scored 45.0%. Average length 37.5 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. f3 Nb6 2. Nc3 Ng6 3. e4 e5 4. Nb3 f5 5. Bf2 Ne7 6. g4 f4 7. g5 Nc6 8. O-O-O Be7 9. h4 O-O-O 10. Bb5 h6 11. Kb1 Kb8 12. Ne2 Ka8 13. Nec1 Nb8 14. a4 Nc8 15. d4 a6 16. Bd3 exd4 17. Nxd4 hxg5 18. hxg5 Nc6 19. Nf5 d5 20. Nxe7 N8xe7 21. Bc5 Ne5 22. Qf1 Nxd3 23. Nxd3 Qf7 24. b3 dxe4 25. fxe4 Nc6 26. Qf3 b6 27. Nb4 Rxd1+ 28. Rxd1 Nxb4 29. Bxb4 Bh7 30. e5+ Kb8 31. Rd4 c5 32. Rd6 cxb4 33. Rxb6+ Ka7 34. Rxb4 Rb8 35. Qf2+ Ka8 36. Qf3+ Ka7 37. Qf2+ Ka8 38. Qf3+
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. f3 Nb6 2. e4 e5 3. Nc3 f5 4. Nb3 Be7 5. Bf2 O-O-O 6. O-O-O Kb8 7. Bd3 Rc8 8. Nc5 Red8 9. Re1 fxe4 10. fxe4 Ng6 11. g3 Qe8 12. Kb1 d6 13. Nb3 Nf8 14. h4 h6 15. Bxb6 axb6 16. Bf1 Be6 17. Qe3 Nd7 18. d4 exd4 19. Nxd4 Bg4 20. Nd5 c6 21. Qf4 Bf6 22. Qxd6+ Ka7 23. Qa3+ Kb8 24. Qd6+ Ka7 25. Qa3+ Kb8
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 74 / 365 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): nrkbrqbn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNRKBBQR w CHbe - 0 1
Mirror twin: White 885 vs Black 312 — a different position (castling squares are fixed), not evaluated by the search.
Current place in the live balance rating: 20.