Starting position #565
Back-rank setup: RNBBKNRQ
SP-565 · 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 e1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on h1.
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 c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 490.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 6 Morozov Balance Index: 6 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +60 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 907 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 52.0% (95% CI 38.5–65.2%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +54 → +43 → +16 → +3
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #490
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and g
- It becomes the daily position in 559 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to h8 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c5 (c2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c7 (b5·26) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to b3 (d2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to g2 (f2·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: knight to d7 (b6) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: queen to g6 (g4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Winning blow: rook to c6 (c1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Winning blow: knight to d5 (c3·19) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
- Mate in 3: rook to d7 (d1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 205
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Commentary
White's edge here is unusually wide: +60 centipawns at depth 44. Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the rooks on a1 and g1. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, one on each colour. The pawn on f2 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 knights on b1 and f1, and the line runs d4 d5 g3 c6 e4 dxe4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.