Starting position #215
Back-rank setup: NQBRKNRB
SP-215 · 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 d1 and g1, the queen on b1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The pawn on e2, f2 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 642.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 91 Morozov Balance Index: 91 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +13 centipawns for White (depth 51, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 96 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): +30 → +15 → -6 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 57): +16 cp, +3 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #642
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 492 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to d5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d5 (h1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (d4·58) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·66) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Winning blow: rook to e1 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: bishop to h5 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c1 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 3: pawn to f7 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on f6 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 22
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Commentary
The rook already stands on d1, so long castling moves the king alone from e1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with a single move, b3; a bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8. Both e2 and f2 rely on the king alone. The queen is on b1, the second bishop on c1. The engine's line opens d4 d5, then c3 g6 e4 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.