Starting position #260
Back-rank setup: NBBRKNQR
SP-260 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on g1.
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.
The pawn on e2 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 606.
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 94 Morozov Balance Index: 94 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +10 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 58 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (32 half-moves): +20 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 53): +13 cp, +3 cp against the base run — verified · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #606
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 701 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f7 — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g3 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (d4·97) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g6 (h5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to e7 (f5·11) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Mate in 2: rook to h8 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: queen to h1 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Mate in 3: bishop to f8 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to g6 (d6) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Mate in 3: bishop to e3 (c1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
This position appears in course day 6
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Commentary
The rook already occupies d1, so long castling moves the king alone from e1. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, one on each colour. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on f1. On the second rank, e2 leans on the king alone. The engine takes the centre with d4 and the line runs d4 c6 c3 d5 Nb3 f6, the corner knight reaching b3 on the fifth half-move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.