White 74 vs Black 749
White starts from setup 74 (NNRKBBQR), Black from setup 749 (RKNBNQBR). 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. 74, Black by position No. 749, 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 #749 R K N B N Q B R
King on the b-file, rooks on a, h, queen on the f-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 749 gives White +0.50 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Why the pair is balanced
At the deepest rungs (400M, 800M, 1.6B nodes) the evaluation is exactly 0.00 each time, reaching search depth 57.
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 -25 and +26 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 74 gives White +0.25 and setup 749 gives White +0.50: 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 f4, and 2 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the largest swing was 53 cp (around move 8), ending at -3 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 | 15 | -25 | 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 f6 3. c4 fxe5 4. e4 c6 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 20 | -4 | 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 f6 3. c4 fxe5 4. e4 d6 |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 24 | +1 | 1. c4 e5 2. e3 h5 3. d4 exd4 4. exd4 Bg5 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 27 | +26 | 1. c4 e5 2. e3 h5 3. f3 a5 4. Qf2 f5 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 32 | +20 | 1. c4 e5 2. e3 h5 3. f3 h4 4. Nc3 f5 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 39 | +12 | 1. c4 e5 2. e3 h5 3. f3 a5 4. Nc3 f5 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 48 | 0 | 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 f6 3. e6 Bxe6 4. Nb3 Nb6 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 53 | 0 | 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 f6 3. e6 Bxe6 4. Nb3 Nb6 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 57 | 0 | 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 f6 3. exf6 Bxf6 4. Nc3 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: -6
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 +52, difference 0. 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 | 0 | 40 | 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 f6 3. e6 Bxe6 4. Nb3 Nb6 5. Nc3 f5 |
| 2 | -9 | 40 | 1. d4 e5 2. e3 exd4 3. exd4 h5 4. Bd3 d5 5. Nb3 Ncd6 |
| 3 | -24 | 39 | 1. c4 e5 |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 53 cp, mean 32.8 cp, final -3 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | c4 | +28 | e5 | +17 |
| 2 | e3 | +17 | h5 | +7 |
| 3 | d4 | -2 | exd4 | -10 |
| 4 | exd4 | -10 | Bh7 | -10 |
| 5 | O-O-O | -32 | d5 | -28 |
| 6 | c5 | -32 | c6 | -31 |
| 7 | Nc2 | -32 | Ne7 | -50 |
| 8 | h4 | -38 | Bc7 | -53 |
| 9 | Bd2 | -36 | a6 | -34 |
| 10 | Nc3 | -42 | Bxc2 | -43 |
| 11 | Kxc2 | -42 | Nf5 | -49 |
| 12 | Bc1 | -41 | g6 | -43 |
| 13 | g3 | -44 | Neg7 | -44 |
| 14 | Bh3 | -44 | Ne6 | -45 |
| 15 | Bxf5 | -40 | gxf5 | -39 |
| 16 | Rd3 | -41 | Ka7 | -45 |
| 17 | f4 | -42 | Ba5 | -49 |
| 18 | Nd1 | -41 | Re8 | -42 |
| 19 | Qf2 | -37 | Bd8 | -40 |
| 20 | Bd2 | -37 | Bf6 | -39 |
| 21 | Kb1 | -33 | Rg8 | -45 |
| 22 | Bc3 | -38 | Ng7 | -33 |
| 23 | Ne3 | -34 | Re4 | -38 |
| 24 | Qd2 | -37 | Qc8 | -38 |
| 25 | Nc2 | -38 | Bd8 | -43 |
| 26 | Ba5 | -43 | Ne8 | -33 |
| 27 | Rb3 | -25 | Nf6 | -21 |
| 28 | Rd1 | -21 | Rge8 | -18 |
| 29 | Qb4 | -12 | Bc7 | -13 |
| 30 | a3 | -6 | Re2 | -3 |
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 39.1 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nb6 3. b3 c6 4. f3 h5 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. O-O-O d5 7. Bg3+ Kc8 8. c5 h4 9. Bf4 Nbd7 10. g3 Bc7 11. Bxc7 Kxc7 12. e3 e5 13. Nc2 Bh7 14. b4 Re8 15. f4 exd4 16. exd4 Ne4 17. Nxe4 fxe4 18. Qe3 Bf5 19. Be2 Nf6 20. b5 cxb5 21. Bxb5 Rc8 22. Rhe1 Ng4 23. Qa3 Kb8 24. Re2 hxg3 25. hxg3 a6 26. Ba4 Qf6 27. Bb3 e3 28. Nxe3 Nxe3 29. Rxe3 Rh2 30. Re5 g5 31. Rd2 Rxd2 32. Kxd2 Be4 33. f5 Qh6 34. Bd1 Rh8 35. Be2 g4+ 36. Qe3 Qc6 37. Qb3 Qh6+ 38. Qe3 Qc6 39. f6 Qxf6 40. Qg5 Qf8
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. c4 e5 2. e3 h5 3. f3 a5 4. Nc3 Nb6 5. d4 f5 6. b3 h4 7. Nc2 d5 8. c5 Nd7 9. Na4 c6 10. dxe5 Nxc5 11. Nxc5 Qxc5 12. g4 Qe7 13. f4 fxg4 14. Qxg4 Be6 15. Qg6 Bf7 16. Qd3 Bb6 17. Rg1 Nc7 18. Bc3 g6 19. Nd4 Rg8 20. Bb2 c5 21. Ba3 Na6 22. Qb5 Qc7 23. Bh3 Be8 24. Qe2 Nb4 25. Ke1 Ka7 26. Rg5 Qe7 27. Nb5+ Bxb5 28. Qxb5 Rad8 29. e6 d4 30. Rgxc5 dxe3 31. Bxb4 axb4 32. Qxb4 Bxc5 33. Rxc5 Qg7 34. Re5 Qc7 35. Rc5 Qg7 36. Re5 Qc7 37. Rc5
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 74 / 749 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): rknbnqbr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNRKBBQR w CHah - 0 1
Mirror twin: White 885 vs Black 408 — a different position (castling squares are fixed), not evaluated by the search.
Current place in the live balance rating: 326.