Starting position #86
Back-rank setup: NNBRKBRQ
SP-86 · 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and g1, the queen on h1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 870.
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 57 Morozov Balance Index: 57 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 412 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 50.0% (95% CI 36.6–63.4%).
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +35 → +17 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #870
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and g
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 139 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e5 (h2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to h3 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to h8 (h6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c6 (d5·34) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: knight to e2 (c3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to f1 (e1·9) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to d6 (e4·20) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Winning blow: queen to f7 (f8·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1510
- Mate in 3: knight to g5 (e4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to d7 (d1·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1860
This position appears in course day 50
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Commentary
The king begins on e1 and the rook already stands on d1, so long castling moves the king alone. The queen is in the corner on h1, far from him, with a bishop on f1 in between. A knight starts in the corner on a1 and can go only to b3. On the second rank, a2 begins with no defender at all, and f2 has only the king. The recorded line opens d4 g6, then Nb3 h5 g3 d6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.