Starting position #332
Back-rank setup: NBRQKRBN
SP-332 · 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 c1 and f1, the queen on d1.
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.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 348.
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 1 Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +59 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 952 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 60.0% (95% CI 46.2–72.4%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +70 → +23 → +10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #348
- The king starts on e, the rooks on c and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 823 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Winning blow: knight to c5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to c5 (g1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (b1·18) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to g5 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to d1 (e1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: knight to c2 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: knight to h5 — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: rook to e6 (f6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1650
- Winning blow: rook to g8 (g3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2010
This position appears in course day 3
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Commentary
This is one of the wider starting edges: +59 centipawns at depth 45. The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1, and the queen begins on d1 beside her king. Two pawns start with no defender at all: b2 and g2. Both knights are in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3. Once f4 f5 has been played the dark-square bishop comes out to d4 and takes on e5: Bd4 e5 Bxe5 Qe7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.