Starting position #234
Back-rank setup: NRQKBBNR
SP-234 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 h1, the queen on c1.
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 e1 and f1; their long diagonals reach a5 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 629.
The engine's main line opens with d3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 24 Morozov Balance Index: 24 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +35 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 738 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): +38 → +15 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #629
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and h
- It becomes the daily position in 788 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f3 (g2·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e4 (f3·21) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to d7 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to d7 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to b8 (b1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: queen to b7 (b8·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: rook to d5 (c5) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: queen to d5 (d2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to e6 (e1·29) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 26
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 with the queen beside him on c1, and castling is ordinary in both directions. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on g1. On the second rank, a2 has no defender at all. The bishops stand together on e1 and f1. The engine's main line opens d3 d6, then f4 g6 Nf3 Bg7 — the dark-square bishop takes the long diagonal from g7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.