Starting position #316
Back-rank setup: NBQRKRBN
SP-316 · 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on c1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
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: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 364.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 2 Morozov Balance Index: 2 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +56 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 943 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): +58 → +32 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #364
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Winning blow: knight to e8 (g7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to g4 (g2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to d6 (c5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g6 (e4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: bishop to f5 (e4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: king to c3 (d2·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1470
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h8 (h4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on e5 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
- Chess960 tactic on e6 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 10
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Commentary
This is one of the wider starting edges: +56 centipawns at depth 44. Both rooks already stand on their castling squares, d1 and f1, so the king walks alone in either direction from e1. Both knights start in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3. Among the pawns, g2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the queen on c1, and the line runs f4 d5 c3 f6 Ng3 c5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.