Starting position #700
Back-rank setup: RBQKNNBR
SP-700 · 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 h1, the queen on c1.
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 g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on e2 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 460.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 40 Morozov Balance Index: 40 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +29 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 566 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): +25 → +21 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #460
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and h
- It becomes the daily position in 615 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to c8 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e3 (d2·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to e1 (d1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to b6 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to h6 (g6·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to e6 (f4·12) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: pawn to c7 (c6·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (e3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: rook to e3 (a3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Mate in 3: queen to c8 (g8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 24
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 with the queen beside him on c1, and castling is ordinary in both directions. The bishops are on b1 and g1, the knights side by side on e1 and f1. Among the pawns, e2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The rooks sit in the corners, a1 and h1. The engine takes the centre with d4, and its queen recaptures on the fifth half-move: d4 d5 c4 dxc4 Qxc4 f6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.