Starting position #242
Back-rank setup: BNRKQBNR
SP-242 · ThroneGuard — The king starts in the middle of the back rank, on d or e, and neither knight begins in a 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 d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on e1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 615.
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 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 199 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 (48 half-moves): +24 → +25 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #615
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c 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: knight to e6 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (e4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d4 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h5 (h1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (e1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to d7 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: bishop to e5 (a1) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e6 (e2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b8 (a7·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1650
- Winning blow: rook to e7 (e3·10) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 15
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1 — and the engine plays it early. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second is on f1. On the second rank, a2 has no defender at all. The queen is on e1 next to the king, the knights on b1 and g1. After e4 b6 White castles at once with O-O-O, and Black answers the same way: e5 b3 O-O-O.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.