Starting position #624
Back-rank setup: BBRNKQRN
SP-624 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 f1.
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 239.
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 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 190 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 (20 half-moves): +20 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #239
- The king starts on e, the rooks on c and g
- It becomes the daily position in 1200 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g6 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (e4·5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to c8 (f8) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (h3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: bishop to e4 (b1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: queen to g8 (g6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 3: king to g2 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (g1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on b5 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 105
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Commentary
The engine's line here is worth playing over: c4 c5 Bxh7 Bxh2 Ng3 Bxg1, with the bishops taking rook's pawns on both wings and one of them ending in the corner. Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the queen on f1 next to her king. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. The pawn on h2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The knights are on d1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move — and the rooks are on c1 and g1.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.