Starting position #664
Back-rank setup: RBNKBRNQ
SP-664 · ThroneGuard — A centre-file king with no knight on the edge; a position and its mirror twin always share this family.
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 f1, the queen on h1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from d1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 205.
The engine's main line opens with c3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 75 Morozov Balance Index: 75 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +19 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 231 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 (60 half-moves): +32 → +14 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #205
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and f
- It becomes the daily position in 814 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: queen to e4 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to a7 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to e7 (e2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to a8 (b7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Winning blow: queen to e2 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Winning blow: queen to b8 (a8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to b7 (a8) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: rook to a7 (a1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: queen to d6 (d4) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
- Chess960 tactic on a8 (a1) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 19
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from d1. The bishops are on b1 and e1, the knights on c1 and g1. Among the pawns, b2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen begins in the far corner on h1, the second rook in the corner on a1. The main line of the run opens c3 c6, then f4 f5 g3 a5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.