Starting position #290
Back-rank setup: BQNRKBRN
SP-290 · 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 g1, the queen on b1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 375.
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 16 Morozov Balance Index: 16 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +39 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 808 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): +36 → +52 → +14 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #375
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 7 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to f4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f4 (e3·16) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g8 (h7·13) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Mate in 2: knight to g4 — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: king to e2 (e1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e6 (f5·28) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Winning blow: queen to a5 (a4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Mate in 3: queen to c7 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: bishop to d3 (f1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Mate in 3: rook to f7 (d7) — Chess960 specifics · 2210
This position appears in course day 45
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Commentary
The rook already occupies d1, so long castling moves the king alone from e1. A knight sits in the corner on h1 with g3 as its only move, the second on c1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on f1. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on b1, and the engine's main line opens c4 e6, then e3 Ng6 f4 Nd6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.