Starting position #364
Back-rank setup: NBRKRQBN
SP-364 · 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 c1 and e1, the queen on f1.
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.
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 316.
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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 430 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +20 → +6 → +10 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #316
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 480 days
Puzzles from this position
- Mate in 1: rook to a3 — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b3 (a2·16) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b6 (g1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·78) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to f1 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to e5 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to b7 (b6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: rook to b1 (e1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1420
- Mate in 3: king to a1 (b1) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on d7 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 8
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1, and in the engine's line both sides go that way — Black first: f4 f5 c3 O-O-O O-O-O Nb6. Both knights start in a corner, a1 and h1, each with a single move: b3 and g3. Among the pawns, b2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the queen on f1. The rooks stand on c1 and e1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.