White 81 vs Black 292
White starts from setup 81 (BNNBRKRQ), Black from setup 292 (QBBNRKRN). 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. 81, Black by position No. 292, 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 #81 B N N B R K R Q
King on the f-file, rooks on e, g, queen on the h-file; one 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 81 gives White +0.35 (Morozov Balance Index, 400M nodes).
Black: setup #292 Q B B N R K R N
King on the f-file, rooks on e, g, queen on the a-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 292 gives White +0.49 (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 53.
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 -22 and 0 cp before settling — a reminder that quick engine checks overstate imbalances, and why the ladder goes deep.
For comparison, in symmetric play setup 81 gives White +0.35 and setup 292 gives White +0.49: 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 g4, and 2 first moves are within 10 cp of it.
Along the engine's main line (30 moves) the largest swing was 32 cp (around move 1), ending at 0 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 | 13 | -2 | 1. g4 c6 2. h4 O-O 3. e3 d5 4. c4 b5 |
| S1 | 500 000 | 19 | -5 | 1. c4 b5 2. cxb5 a6 3. bxa6 c5 4. Nc3 O-O |
| S2 | 2 000 000 | 22 | -18 | 1. c4 b5 2. cxb5 a6 3. b6 cxb6 4. h4 a5 |
| S3 | 8 000 000 | 28 | -17 | 1. c4 b5 2. cxb5 a6 3. bxa6 c5 4. Nd3 Qxa6 |
| S4 | 32 000 000 | 33 | -22 | 1. g4 c6 2. c4 O-O 3. Nc3 b5 4. Nxb5 d5 |
| S5 | 128 000 000 | 38 | 0 | 1. g4 c6 2. c4 O-O 3. Nc3 b5 4. Nxb5 Ng6 |
| S6 | 400 000 000 | 51 | 0 | 1. g4 c6 2. c4 O-O 3. Nc3 b5 4. Nxb5 Ng6 |
| S7 | 800 000 000 | 52 | 0 | 1. g4 c6 2. c4 O-O 3. Nc3 b5 4. Nxb5 Ng6 |
| S8 | 1 600 000 000 | 53 | 0 | 1. g4 c6 2. c4 b5 3. cxb5 a5 4. Nc3 Bb7 |
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 +56, Black +100, difference -44. 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 | +2 | 41 | 1. g4 c6 2. c4 b5 3. cxb5 O-O 4. Nd3 Ne6 5. bxc6 dxc6 |
| 2 | 0 | 41 | 1. c4 b5 2. cxb5 a6 3. bxa6 Bxa6 4. Nc3 c5 5. Ba4 Ne6 |
| 3 | -30 | 41 | 1. d4 f6 2. c4 c6 3. b4 Nhf7 4. h4 e5 5. e3 O-O |
Main-line play-out
30 moves, 5 000 000 nodes per half-move. Largest |evaluation| 32 cp, mean 4.2 cp, final 0 cp.
| # | White | cp | Black | cp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | c4 | -11 | b5 | -32 |
| 2 | cxb5 | -30 | a6 | -27 |
| 3 | bxa6 | -27 | Bxa6 | -13 |
| 4 | b4 | -9 | Qe4 | -11 |
| 5 | Nc3 | -11 | Qxb4 | -13 |
| 6 | h4 | -16 | O-O | -4 |
| 7 | Qh3 | -5 | Ne6 | +2 |
| 8 | Nd3 | -2 | Qa5 | -2 |
| 9 | Bb3 | -3 | c5 | +1 |
| 10 | Qg4 | +5 | Ng6 | +4 |
| 11 | Qa4 | +12 | Qxa4 | +4 |
| 12 | Bxa4 | +2 | Rd8 | 0 |
| 13 | Nd5 | 0 | Bd6 | 0 |
| 14 | g3 | 0 | h5 | +4 |
| 15 | Rc1 | 0 | Bxd3 | 0 |
| 16 | exd3 | 0 | Ra8 | 0 |
| 17 | Bxd7 | 0 | Rxa2 | 0 |
| 18 | Ke2 | 0 | Nd4+ | 0 |
| 19 | Bxd4 | 0 | cxd4 | 0 |
| 20 | Bf5 | 0 | Rb2 | 0 |
| 21 | Bxg6 | 0 | fxg6 | 0 |
| 22 | Rb1 | 0 | Rfb8 | 0 |
| 23 | Rxb2 | 0 | Rxb2 | 0 |
| 24 | Nf4 | 0 | Bxf4 | 0 |
| 25 | gxf4 | 0 | Kf7 | 0 |
| 26 | Ra1 | 0 | Rb4 | 0 |
| 27 | Kf3 | 0 | Rb6 | 0 |
| 28 | Ke4 | 0 | Kf6 | 0 |
| 29 | Rg1 | 0 | Rb4 | 0 |
| 30 | Rc1 | 0 | Ke6 | 0 |
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 38.2 moves.
Sample game 1 (1/2-1/2)
1. c4 c6 2. h4 a5 3. b3 b5 4. Nc3 O-O 5. cxb5 cxb5 6. Nxb5 Qd5 7. a4 Qxd2 8. Nd3 e5 9. Bc3 Qh6 10. e3 d5 11. Bxa5 Nc6 12. Bc7 Bxc7 13. Nxc7 Re7 14. Nb5 e4 15. Nf4 Rd8 16. Qh2 d4 17. exd4 Ng6 18. Nxg6 hxg6 19. O-O Ba6 20. Be2 Bxb5 21. Bxb5 Nxd4 22. Bc4 g5 23. h5 Kh7 24. a5 f5 25. Ra1 Qf6 26. Ra2 f4 27. a6 Qf5 28. a7 Ra8 29. Rd2 Qf6 30. Qh3 Nf5 31. Rd5 Nh6 32. Be2 Rexa7 33. Rfd1 Ra2 34. Rd6 Qf8 35. Bb5 g4 36. Rxh6+ Kxh6 37. Qxg4 Qf6 38. Rd5 Rf8 39. Re5 Kh7 40. Rxe4 f3 41. Bd3 Ra1+ 42. Re1+ Kh8 43. Rxa1 Qxa1+ 44. Kh2 fxg2 45. Kxg2 Qb2 46. Qh4 Qe5 47. Qg4 Qd5+ 48. Be4 Qd2 49. Bf5 Qd5+ 50. Be4 Qd2 51. Bf5 Rf6 52. Qe4 Qg5+
Sample game 2 (1/2-1/2)
1. c4 b5 2. cxb5 a6 3. bxa6 Bxa6 4. b4 Qe4 5. Nc3 Qxb4 6. h4 O-O 7. Qh3 Ne6 8. Nd3 Qa5 9. Bb3 c5 10. Qf5 Bc7 11. Qe4 Nd4 12. Nd5 e6 13. Nxc7 Nxb3 14. axb3 Qxc7 15. h5 f6 16. h6 g5 17. O-O Ng6 18. b4 d5 19. Qf3 Bxd3 20. Qxd3 cxb4 21. Rb1 Rb8 22. Rfc1 Qd7 23. g3 e5 24. Qb3 Rf7 25. Rc5 Ne7 26. Rbc1 Qg4 27. Qd3 Rbf8 28. Rc7 Nf5 29. Qxd5 Nxh6 30. R1c6 Kh8 31. Bxe5 Qf5 32. Rxf7 Rxf7 33. Bxf6+ Rxf6 34. Qxf5 Rxf5 35. Rxh6 Rb5 36. Kg2 b3 37. Rh1 b2 38. Rb1 Rb4 39. d4 Kg7 40. f3 h5
Play it in the CH960 app
Open this page on a phone with the CH960 app installed, or find pair 81 / 292 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): qbbnrkrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BNNBRKRQ w EGeg - 0 1
Mirror twin: White 875 vs Black 382 — a different position (castling squares are fixed), not evaluated by the search.
Current place in the live balance rating: 351.