Starting position #360
Back-rank setup: NBRKBRQN
SP-360 · 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 g1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 317.
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 14 Morozov Balance Index: 14 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +40 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 826 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +53 → +24 → +45 → +25
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #317
- 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 649 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (a5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c4 (c3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b6 (c5·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 (c4·96) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c4 (b5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to g2 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to f7 (g7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: rook to c7 (c6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: knight to e7 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Mate in 3: rook to a7 (a4) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 4
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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. Both knights start in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3. The pawn on b2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the queen on g1. The engine's main line opens f4 f5, then c4 Ng6 Nb3 c6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.