Starting position #647
Back-rank setup: RNBKRQNB
SP-647 · ThroneGuard — King home on d or e, knights kept off the a- and h-files — the family of the standard starting array.
Move the pieces right on the board — full Chess960 rules, castle by dropping the king on the rook.
Position features
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and e1, 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 h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 210.
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 86 Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 127 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 (70 half-moves): +29 → +22 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 53): +15 cp, 0 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #210
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and e
- 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: pawn to c4 (b3·12) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to b7 (a7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c5 (e3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to c2 (c1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to h7 (h8·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (h1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: queen to d7 (a7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (c7·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1620
- Winning blow: pawn to e6 (f5·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on b3 — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 37
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on a1 and e1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on c1. Among the pawns, h2 has no defender, and c2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on f1, the knights on b1 and g1. The engine keeps the edge small, +15 centipawns: f4 d6 e4 g6 h3 e5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.