Starting position #770
Back-rank setup: BQRKNBRN
SP-770 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one 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 d1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on b1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 183.
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 83 Morozov Balance Index: 83 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +16 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 152 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): +26 → +5 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #183
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- This position does not come up as the daily position in the next four years
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to c1 (d1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: queen to e7 (e6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to b2 (b3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to a8 (a4) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to c2 (d1·19) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g8 (h7·16) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e8 (h8) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g5 (h4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: queen to a6 (c4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: knight to c7 (e6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2010
This position appears in course day 233
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1. A bishop is shut into the corner on a1 with a single diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on f1. On the second rank, h2 has no defender, and d2 leans on the king alone. The queen is on b1, the knights on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. Both sides put a bishop on the long diagonal: c4 c5 g3 g6 Bg2 Bg7.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.