Starting position #786
Back-rank setup: BRQKNBRN
SP-786 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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 b1 and g1, 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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 167.
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 97 Morozov Balance Index: 97 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +2 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 24 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 53.0% (95% CI 39.5–66.1%).
- Balance band E — even · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +29 → +31 → +21 → 0
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 47): +16 cp, +14 cp against the base run — not confirmed at depth · S — slight edge
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #167
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and g
- It becomes the daily position in 445 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to f4 (e3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b5 (f1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to f5 (d6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c3 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 1150
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c8 — Chess960 specifics · 1220
- Mate in 2: queen to e7 (e2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: rook to c3 (b3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 2: rook to a3 — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: rook to e7 (e5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (b3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 44
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads
Commentary
The king begins on d1 with the queen beside him on c1, and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on b1 and g1. A bishop holds the corner on a1 with one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on f1. Two pawns begin without a defender, a2 and h2 — the edges of the rank. The knights are on e1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The engine finds almost nothing for White here — +2 centipawns — and the line runs c4 b6 b3 e6 Qc2 Ng6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.