Starting position #784
Back-rank setup: BBRQKNRN
SP-784 · 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 c1 and g1, 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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 175.
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 1 Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +58 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 948 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 58.0% (95% CI 44.2–70.6%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +57 → +40 → +3 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #175
- The king starts on e, the rooks on c and g
- It becomes the daily position in 134 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e4 (f3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a4 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to a3 (a5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to f2 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b5 (d3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d6 (e4·17) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Castling-960 to the rescue on c1 (e1) — Castling-960 · 1340
- Mate in 3: queen to c8 (a8) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to d7 (d1·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Mate in 3: queen to d6 (f6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 49
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Commentary
The queen starts on her classical square d1 with the king beside her on e1, and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on c1 and g1. A bishop holds the corner on a1 with one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on b1. Every pawn on the second rank begins with a defender — this setup concedes nothing on move one. The knights are on f1 and h1 — both can reach g3, so a knight move there has to name its file. White's edge here is a wide one, +58 centipawns: c4 c5 e3 b6 f4 f6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.