Starting position #268
Back-rank setup: NBRKNQBR
SP-268 · 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 d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on f1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-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 604.
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 1 Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +58 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 954 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 58.0% (95% CI 44.2–70.6%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (53 half-moves): +47 → +28 → +11 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #604
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 180 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (a5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (c5·10) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·49) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to a7 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g8 (b3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: pawn to d5 (e4·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to f7 (f6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: knight to f8 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: king to b1 (b2·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1890
- Chess960 tactic on d8 (c8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 7
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Commentary
This is one of the wider starting edges: +58 centipawns at depth 43. 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 e1. Among the pawns, b2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the queen on f1, and the main line runs c4 c6 f4 f5 Nb3 g6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.