Starting position #70
Back-rank setup: NNBRKBQR
SP-70 · 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on g1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 886.
The engine's main line opens with f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 14 Morozov Balance Index: 14 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +40 centipawns for White (depth 51, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 829 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +52 → +43 → +35 → +11
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #886
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and h
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 782 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to d5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to a5 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c5 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to b1 (c1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h8 (e5·6) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c7 (d5·24) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Winning blow: king to g1 (f1·23) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: queen to g7 (h7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: queen to c7 (b7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on e6 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 26
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Commentary
The king begins on e1 with the rook already on d1, so long castling moves only the king. The queen is far from him, on g1, with a bishop on f1 in between. A knight starts in the corner on a1 and can go only to b3. Among the pawns, a2 has no defender at the start. The main line of the run opens f3 Nb6, then d4 f6 Nb3 Qf7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.