Starting position #659
Back-rank setup: BRNKRNQB
SP-659 · 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 b1 and e1, the queen on g1.
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 a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on c2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 195.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
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 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 126 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): +25 → +6 → +3 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 50): +23 cp, +8 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #195
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 239 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to f2 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to e2 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to e7 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to g6 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (f2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to c8 (c1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to d5 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to b7 (a8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: knight to a6 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on e6 (e1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 20
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on b1 and e1. Both corners hold a bishop, a1 towards h8 and h1 towards a8, each with a single diagonal. Among the pawns, c2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The queen is on g1, the knights on c1 and f1. The engine opens on the flank, and the queen collects the pawn back: h4 f5 g4 fxg4 Qxg4 g6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.