Starting position #280
Back-rank setup: NBRKBNRQ
SP-280 · 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 g1, the queen on h1.
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 589.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 13 Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 840 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +46 → +20 → +8 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #589
- 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 159 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (a5·16) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e5 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to h2 (g2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to e4 (d3·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (e7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (c5·17) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 3: bishop to b5 (d3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on d6 (e5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 2
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1, and the queen begins in the corner on h1. A knight starts in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move, the second on f1. Among the pawns, b2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and e1, one on each colour. The main line of the run opens g3 c6, then d4 Nb6 c4 g6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.