Starting position #264
Back-rank setup: NBRKBNQR
SP-264 · 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 c1 and h1, the queen on g1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 605.
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 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 736 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 → +46 → +40 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #605
- 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 b7 (c5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·85) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to b4 (a5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to a8 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: bishop to c6 (e4·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: queen to e5 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (e2·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Winning blow: pawn to e8 (e7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 13
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on f1. The pawn on b2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the queen on g1. The engine's main line opens c4 f6, then f3 Bg6 e4 c5 — Black's bishop steps out to g6 on the fourth half-move.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.