Starting position #604
Back-rank setup: RBQNKRBN
SP-604 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
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 c1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 268.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 0 Morozov Balance Index: 0 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +81 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 959 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 63.0% (95% CI 49.1–75.0%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +77 → +126 → +130 → +149
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #268
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1172 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g8 (g6) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d6 (e5·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to d4 (b2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d1 (e1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·15) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: rook to e1 (a1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to c1 (a1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: queen to a3 (b2) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f2 (d1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Chess960 tactic on d7 (d1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2250
This position appears in course day 5
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Commentary
White's edge here is unusually wide: +81 centipawns at depth 45. The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. Among the pawns, g2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the queen on c1, the knights on d1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The line runs f4 c5 Ng3 f6 c4 Ne6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.