Starting position #190
Back-rank setup: NRNKRBBQ
SP-190 · 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 d1, the rooks on b1 and e1, the queen on h1.
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 f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- 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 772.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 26 Morozov Balance Index: 26 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 715 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): +33 → +44 → +28 → +3
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #772
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 151 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g6 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h8 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to a5 (b3·21) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: rook to b8 (b1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: bishop to d5 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: pawn to d6 (e5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Mate in 3: pawn to c3 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to d5 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (h4·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on d4 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 33
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 with the rooks on b1 and e1 — an unusually narrow split — and castling is ordinary in both directions. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. On the second rank, d2 has only the king to defend it. The queen is in the corner on h1, the bishops on f1 and g1. The main line of the run opens e4 e5, then g3 Nab6 Nab3 g5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.