Starting position #166
Back-rank setup: NRBNKBQR
SP-166 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 and h1, the queen on g1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 790.
The engine's main line opens with Nb3, bringing the knight out to b3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 34 Morozov Balance Index: 34 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +31 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 644 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +40 → +31 → +20 → +5
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #790
- The king starts on e, the rooks on b and h
- It becomes the daily position in 748 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g6 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (e4·82) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to b2 — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: pawn to f3 (g2·12) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (e8) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: bishop to d6 (f4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 3: queen to c4 (a4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to g7 (g1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: pawn to h8 (h7·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on c7 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 30
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Commentary
Here the engine's first choice is the corner knight itself: Nb3, the only move that knight has. The king begins on e1 with castling ordinary in both directions, the queen far away on g1. Among the pawns, a2 has no defender at the start. The bishops are on c1 and f1, the second knight on d1. After Nb3 the line runs f5 d4 b5 e4 fxe4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.