Starting position #172
Back-rank setup: NBRNKQBR
SP-172 · 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 c1 and h1, 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.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on d2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 796.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 86 Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 144 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 (70 half-moves): +41 → +38 → +15 → +5 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 54): +15 cp, 0 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #796
- The king starts on e, the rooks on c and h
- It becomes the daily position in 450 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to e5 (f4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (e4·25) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b3 (a2·11) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d5 (e3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (b1·20) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to g1 (f1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: knight to d8 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 3: rook to d7 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to h7 (f6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2150
This position appears in course day 56
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the rooks far apart on c1 and h1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. Among the pawns, d2 is defended by the king alone. The queen is on f1 next to the king, the bishops on b1 and g1. The main line of the run opens c4 f5, then f4 Nb6 b3 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.