Starting position #628
Back-rank setup: RBBNKQRN
SP-628 · 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 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.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
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 238.
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 18 Morozov Balance Index: 18 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +38 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 786 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +40 → +85 → +83 → +58
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #238
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and g
- It becomes the daily position in 952 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f5 (h3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c1 (a1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f6 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g6 (h7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f5 (b1·14) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Mate in 2: rook to f7 (f1) — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Winning blow: rook to h1 (g1·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1470
- Mate in 3: rook to d8 (d2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f7 (f2·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
- Mate in 3: queen to h3 (e3) — Chess960 specifics · 2170
This position appears in course day 78
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the queen on f1 next to her king. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, one on each colour. Among the pawns, h2 is the one that begins without a defender. The knights are on d1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move — and the rooks are on a1 and g1. White's edge here is a wide one, +38 centipawns: f4 f5 d4 c6 c4 Qf7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.