Starting position #536
Back-rank setup: RBNKBQNR
SP-536 · 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 d1, 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 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 ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 525.
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 43 Morozov Balance Index: 43 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +28 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 546 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): +31 → +31 → +4 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #525
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 1096 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: king to e2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a4 (a1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e5 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d2 (d1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: rook to f8 (f1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (e4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g6 (f4·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: queen to b7 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (g4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Mate in 3: queen to b6 (c5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2170
This position appears in course day 8
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks in the corners on a1 and h1. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the knights on c1 and g1. Among the pawns, b2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on f1. 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.