Starting position #274
Back-rank setup: BNRKNBRQ
SP-274 · ThroneGuard — A centre-file king with no knight on the edge; a position and its mirror twin always share this family.
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 g1, the queen on h1.
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.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, f2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 583.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 433 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 (60 half-moves): +36 → +15 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #583
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 225 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h8 (a1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f7 (g8) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f2 (d3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d7 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Winning blow: pawn to e3 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to g8 (a8) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to c6 (e6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1510
- Mate in 3: pawn to a8 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to e5 (h2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Chess960 tactic on c6 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 22
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1, and the queen begins in the far corner on h1. A bishop is closed into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second is on f1. Two pawns start with no defender at all: a2 and f2, one on each wing. The knights are on b1 and e1. The main line of the run opens g4 g6, then Bg2 Bg7 Bxb7 Bxb7 — the light-square bishops come off on b7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.