Starting position #460
Back-rank setup: RBNNKQBR
SP-460 · ThroneGuard — A centre-file king with no knight on the edge; a position and its mirror twin always share this family.
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 a1 and h1, the queen on f1.
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 b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on d2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 700.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 59 Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 401 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): +36 → +7 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #700
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 223 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g2 (g3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b3 (a2·18) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h4 (h1·13) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to h1 (g1·15) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f2 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (g3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Mate in 2: queen to b5 (b4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Winning blow: queen to f2 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 1620
- Mate in 3: pawn to h6 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on f8 — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 48
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the queen on f1 next to her king. The rooks sit in the corners, a1 and h1. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the knights on c1 and d1. Among the pawns, d2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The engine takes the centre with e4, and its queen recaptures on the fifth half-move: e4 e5 f4 exf4 Qxf4 c6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.