Starting position #578
Back-rank setup: BQRNKBRN
SP-578 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one 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 c1 and g1, the queen on b1.
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 ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 279.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 1 Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +56 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 950 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 62.0% (95% CI 48.2–74.1%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +59 → +43 → +20 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #279
- The king starts on e, the rooks on c and g
- It becomes the daily position in 84 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to g5 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (h7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to g5 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to e1 (f2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: queen to b5 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Mate in 2: queen to b6 (a7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d3 (e2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: queen to c6 (c4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to h7 (g8) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: queen to b4 (d2·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 49
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Commentary
White's edge here is unusually wide: +56 centipawns at depth 46. Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the rooks on c1 and g1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on f1. On the second rank, h2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on b1, the knights on d1 and h1, and the line runs c4 g6 e3 c5 f4 Bg7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.