Starting position #869
Back-rank setup: QRBBKRNN
SP-869 · ThroneScout — King in the middle of the rank, with a knight already committed to the 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 b1 and f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
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 90.
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 61 Morozov Balance Index: 61 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 366 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +32 → +24 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #90
- The king starts on e, the rooks on b and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 720 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f4 (c1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b5 (e2·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (g8) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to e7 (e5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to g5 (b5) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·19) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: knight to e5 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Winning blow: bishop to h7 (e4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1650
- Chess960 tactic on b6 (b4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 4
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1 — and both sides do castle short here, on the third move of the published line. The bishops stand side by side on c1 and d1, one on each colour. Two pawns begin without a defender, g2 and h2. The queen begins in the far corner on a1, the knights on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move, and the second rook is on b1. White's edge is +23 centipawns: Ng3 Nf6 Nf3 b5 O-O O-O.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.