Starting position #334
Back-rank setup: NRQKRBBN
SP-334 · 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 b1 and e1, the queen on c1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 340.
The engine's main line opens with f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 432 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): +39 → +10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #340
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 301 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f7 (e5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g3 (f2·11) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c7 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to d2 (e1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: bishop to d4 (g1·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to d6 (c4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to f7 (d5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Castling-960 to the rescue on b1 (d1·7) — Castling-960 · 1340
- Winning blow: bishop to a6 (f1·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Winning blow: queen to c7 (c5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 6
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 with the queen beside him on c1, and castling is ordinary in both directions. Both knights start in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3. The bishops sit together on f1 and g1. Among the pawns, a2 is the one that begins without a defender. The main line of the run opens f3 f6, then c4 b6 e4 c5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.