Starting position #547
Back-rank setup: BRNKNQRB
SP-547 · ThroneGuard — A central king (d or e) and two knights tucked onto inner files: the family that holds the standard array, SP-518.
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 b1 and g1, 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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 499.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 94 Morozov Balance Index: 94 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +10 centipawns for White (depth 42, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 54 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +32 → +9 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 50): +10 cp, 0 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #499
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and g
- It becomes the daily position in 1178 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: queen to g8 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g4 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to e2 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (c5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h8 (h7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c6 (d4·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: knight to d5 (e7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Winning blow: knight to c2 (e3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (h4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 99
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Commentary
Both corners hold a bishop, a1 towards h8 and h1 towards a8, each with a single diagonal. The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions. The pawn on h2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. Both knights, on c1 and e1, can reach d3, so the third half-move carries a letter — and Black's reply needs one too: g4 g5 Ncd3 Ncd6 e4 f6. The queen is on f1, the rooks on b1 and g1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.