Starting position #299
Back-rank setup: QNRKBRNB
SP-299 · ThroneGuard — King home on d or e, knights kept off the a- and h-files — the family of the standard starting array.
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 f1, the queen on a1.
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 h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 369.
The engine's main line opens with d3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 69 Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 309 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): +28 → +10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #369
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 682 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a8 (g2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f5 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to d7 (e6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f6 (a1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Mate in 2: queen to a7 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1410
- Mate in 3: queen to f5 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: pawn to d5 (c4·22) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: pawn to g7 (g6·12) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Chess960 tactic on c7 (b7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 33
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1; short castling moves the king alone, because the rook already stands on f1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on e1. The knights are on b1 and g1, the queen in the corner on a1. Among the pawns, h2 is the only one starting without a defender. The engine's line opens d3 d6, then a4 b6 b4 Bc6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.