Starting position #476
Back-rank setup: RBNNKRBQ
SP-476 · ThroneGuard — The king starts in the middle of the back rank, on d or e, and neither knight begins in a corner.
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 f1, the queen on h1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
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 684.
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 55 Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 426 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): +34 → +25 → +7 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #684
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 174 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b6 (f2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b6 (a5·20) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f5 (f1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to e6 (e5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: queen to f5 (h3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1440
- Mate in 3: queen to f8 (f4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f5 (g5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
- Mate in 3: rook to e1 (f1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1820
- Mate in 3: queen to d8 (f8) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 54
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the knights on c1 and d1. On the second rank, d2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen begins in the far corner on h1, the second rook in the corner on a1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and the line runs e4 c6 c3 e5 g3 g6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.