Starting position #640
Back-rank setup: BBRNKRQN
SP-640 · 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 c1 and f1, the queen on g1.
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.
The pawn on d2, e2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 223.
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 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 335 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (41 half-moves): +59 → -12 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #223
- The king starts on e, the rooks on c and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1298 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to g7 (a1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d6 (e4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (g5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to b5 (e2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to g1 (f1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (d5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: queen to d5 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: queen to f6 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on h5 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
- Chess960 tactic on c6 (e5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 96
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second works the light squares from b1. Two second-rank pawns lean on the king alone: d2 and e2, side by side. The queen is on g1, the knights on d1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The main line of the run opens c4 c5, then f4 Ng6 e3 b6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.