Starting position #620
Back-rank setup: RBNQKRBN
SP-620 · 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 a1 and f1, the queen on d1.
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.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 252.
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 1 Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +63 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 949 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: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +57 → +45 → +92 → +79
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #252
- 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 1191 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f6 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g7 (h6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Mate in 2: queen to f8 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: bishop to d6 (c5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Mate in 3: queen to a5 (a4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to g5 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: queen to d5 (f7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: knight to f6 (d5·16) — Chess960 specifics · 2100
This position appears in course day 70
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Commentary
White's edge here is unusually wide: +63 centipawns at depth 43. The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. Two pawns begin with no defender at all: b2 and g2, one on each wing. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the queen on d1 beside her king. The knights are on c1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move — and the line runs f4 c6 e4 f6 Ng3 e5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.