Starting position #864
Back-rank setup: BBQRKRNN
SP-864 · 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on c1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
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: g2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 95.
The engine's main line opens with Ng3, bringing the knight out to g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 5 Morozov Balance Index: 5 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +49 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 912 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +53 → +36 → +74 → +7
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #95
- The king starts on e, the rooks on d and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 275 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Winning blow: queen to c2 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to f6 (a1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to c6 (e4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: knight to f5 (g3·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1060
- Winning blow: pawn to g3 (f2·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: king to b2 (c3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: queen to d8 (c7·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1760
- Winning blow: pawn to b5 (b4·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Winning blow: queen to b8 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 11
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Commentary
Both rooks already stand on the squares castling would give them, d1 and f1, so neither castling moves a rook — only the king travels, in one direction or the other. A bishop holds the corner on a1 with one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on b1. Two pawns begin without a defender, g2 and h2. The queen is on c1, the knights on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move, and the engine plays exactly that first. White's edge here is a wide one, +49 centipawns: Ng3 b6 Nf3 Ng6 Nf5 f6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.