Starting position #599
Back-rank setup: RQBNKRNB
SP-599 · ThroneGuard — King home on d or e, knights kept off the a- and h-files — the family of the standard starting array.
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 b1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
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 258.
The engine's main line opens with Nf3, bringing the knight out to f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 69 Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 296 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): +27 → +32 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #258
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c5 (d4·22) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d1 (e1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to b1 (a1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to h7 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Mate in 2: queen to e7 — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c1 (b1) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: rook to f1 (f5) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f8 (f5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (c7·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1560
- Winning blow: rook to b4 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 134
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on c1. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on b1, the knights on d1 and g1, the second rook in the corner on a1. The engine's first move is a knight: Nf3 b5 e4 g6 c3 c5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.