Starting position #644
Back-rank setup: RBBNKRQN
SP-644 · 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 g1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on 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 222.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 83 Morozov Balance Index: 83 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +16 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 154 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 (58 half-moves): +26 → 0 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #222
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g4 (f2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f7 (g5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to d1 (e1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to g2 (g7) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g1 (e3) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: queen to g4 (h5) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Winning blow: pawn to e7 (e6·19) — Chess960 specifics · 1470
- Mate in 3: pawn to d7 (d6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: bishop to g6 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 2380
This position appears in course day 86
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, one on each colour. On the second rank, e2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen is on g1, the knights on d1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The engine keeps the edge small, +16 centipawns: g4 d5 f4 f5 d4 fxg4.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.