Starting position #695
Back-rank setup: RQBKNNRB
SP-695 · 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 g1, the queen on b1.
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: f2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 450.
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 11 Morozov Balance Index: 11 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +42 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 852 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: sharpening
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +31 → +36 → +21 → +28
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #450
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and g
- 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 d3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to c3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c6 (d4·7) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c2 (e1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: knight to c6 (e5·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: bishop to f7 (d5·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Castling-960 to the rescue on a1 (d1·12) — Castling-960 · 1340
- Mate in 3: queen to d8 (c8) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to f8 (f7·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: bishop to g4 (f3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 11
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on a1 and g1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on c1. Among the pawns, f2 has no defender, and e2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on b1, the knights side by side on e1 and f1. The search ran to depth 49 here and the line ends in a check: c3 d5 g3 c6 e4 Bg4+.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.