Starting position #167
Back-rank setup: NRBNKQRB
SP-167 · ThroneScout — King in the middle of the rank, with a knight already committed to the corner.
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 g1, the queen on f1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 786.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 69 Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 42, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 313 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +24 → +7 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #786
- The king starts on e, the rooks on b and g
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: king to f2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b8 (a7·10) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d4 (c2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (c5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d1 (d2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to b5 (b4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Mate in 2: queen to e5 (h5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: pawn to b7 (b6) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to e7 (e2·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on g5 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 27
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the rooks on b1 and g1. A knight is in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, a bishop in the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8. The pawns on a2 and h2 begin with no defender at all. The queen stands on f1 next to the king, the second bishop on c1. The engine's line opens f4 c5, then Qf2 b6 c4 g6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.