Starting position #692
Back-rank setup: RBBQKNNR
SP-692 · ThroneGuard — The king starts in the middle of the back rank, on d or e, and neither 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 h1, the queen on d1.
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 c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 462.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
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 50, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 125 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 → +7 → 0 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 53): +18 cp, +3 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #462
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 9 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to c3 (b2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to e5 (f3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g5 (f3·16) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to d1 (c2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to e8 (e5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to f2 (e3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to h1 (g1·30) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to e7 (e3) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Mate in 3: knight to e8 (c7) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (h5·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1700
This position appears in course day 5
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Commentary
Castling is ordinary in both directions from e1, with the queen on d1 next to her king. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, one on each colour. On the second rank, g2 has no defender, and f2 leans on the king alone. The knights stand side by side on f1 and g1, the rooks in the corners on a1 and h1. The search ran to depth 50 here and calls it +15 centipawns: c4 c6 d4 d5 Nf3 a5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.