Starting position #348
Back-rank setup: NBRKQRBN
SP-348 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 e1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
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 332.
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: +62 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 951 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 56.0% (95% CI 42.3–68.8%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +58 → +32 → +15 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #332
- 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 799 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (c5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (b1·14) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to c3 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to d2 (d1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: bishop to b5 (d3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: bishop to c5 (d6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to d8 (e7) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e6 (d7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: bishop to b5 (a6) — Chess960 specifics · 2170
This position appears in course day 6
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Commentary
This is one of the wider starting edges: +62 centipawns at depth 43. 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. Two pawns begin 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. The queen is on e1 beside her king, the bishops on b1 and g1, and the line runs f4 c5 Ng3 f5 c4 Ng6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.