Starting position #611
Back-rank setup: BRNQKRNB
SP-611 · 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 b1 and f1, the queen on d1.
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 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 243.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 86 Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 129 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +8 → +27 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 54): +22 cp, +7 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #243
- The king starts on e, the rooks on b and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 2 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: rook to b8 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g4 (f3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c4 (d3·22) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to h1 (g1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: pawn to a4 (a3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: king to f1 (g1·26) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c6 (h1·13) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b5 (a6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: bishop to c6 (h1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: queen to f8 (e7·7) — Chess960 specifics · 2150
This position appears in course day 5
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. Both corners hold a bishop, a1 towards h8 and h1 towards a8, each with a single diagonal. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is on d1 beside her king, the knights on c1 and g1, the second rook on b1. The search ran to depth 48 and calls it +15 centipawns: g3 g6 d4 Nf6 b3 O-O.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.