Starting position #848
Back-rank setup: BBRKNRNQ
SP-848 · ThroneGuard — The king starts in the middle of the back rank, on d or e, and neither 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 f1, the queen on h1.
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.
The pawn on d2 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 111.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 10 Morozov Balance Index: 10 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +43 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 863 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: equalizing
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +64 → +53 → +45 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #111
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 894 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f8 — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b5 (c4·13) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h8 (a1·21) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: king to g1 (f2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: queen to a8 (f3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: queen to d8 (a8·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to c7 (a7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: queen to e6 (h3·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Winning blow: king to e1 (d1·19) — Chess960 specifics · 1750
- Winning blow: king to d3 (e2·8) — Chess960 specifics · 2060
This position appears in course day 7
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1, while the rook already occupies f1, so the short one moves the king alone. The queen begins in the corner on h1, and a bishop holds the opposite corner on a1 with its one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on b1. On the second rank, d2 leans on the king alone; no other second-rank pawn starts short of a defender. The knights are on e1 and g1 — both can reach f3, so a knight move there has to name its file. White's edge here is a wide one, +43 centipawns, and the engine opens on the flank with g4: g4 c5 c4 f6 h4 e5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.