Starting position #244
Back-rank setup: NBBRKQNR
SP-244 · 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 f1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 622.
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 28 Morozov Balance Index: 28 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +33 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 695 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): +51 → +52 → +32 → +11
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #622
- 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: bishop to c4 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h1 (g1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to h6 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d3 (e2·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: queen to b5 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 3: pawn to f6 (g5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to d6 (e6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on f6 (e5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 28
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads
Commentary
The rook already occupies d1, so long castling moves the king alone from e1. Every second-rank pawn starts with a defender. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on g1. The queen is on f1, the bishops on b1 and c1. The main line of the run opens e4 e5, then Qe2 Qe7 Nb3 Nb6 — both queens step to the e-file and both corner knights come out.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.