Starting position #220
Back-rank setup: NBQRKNBR
SP-220 · 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 d1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 652.
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 72 Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 271 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 (51 half-moves): +25 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #652
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to h8 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d4 (e3·17) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d5 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to c2 (c1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (g4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to a8 (f3·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Castling-960 to the rescue on d1 (e1) — Castling-960 · 1340
- Mate in 2: rook to f8 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Chess960 tactic on b3 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 4
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Commentary
The rook already stands on d1, so long castling moves the king alone from e1. Among the pawns, g2 begins with no defender at all, and e2 has only the king. A knight is in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on f1. The queen is on c1, the bishops on b1 and g1. The main line of the run opens c4 c5, then Nb3 f6 Ne3 Nb6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.