Starting position #652
Back-rank setup: RBNKRQBN
SP-652 · 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 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.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 220.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
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 189 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +22 → -14 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #220
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 82 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to e7 (e1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to g5 (f4·29) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to b3 (c4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d1 (g1) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b6 (a5·22) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to c7 (c6·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: knight to g5 (e6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Mate in 3: knight to f5 (d4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Mate in 3: pawn to b7 (c6) — Chess960 specifics · 1980
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b6 (c5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2350
This position appears in course day 96
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on a1 and e1. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the knights on c1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. Among the pawns, b2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on f1. The engine takes the centre with e4 and the centre trades off: e4 e5 f4 f6 fxe5 fxe5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.