Starting position #870
Back-rank setup: QRBKRBNN
SP-870 · 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 e1, the queen on a1.
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.
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: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 86.
The engine's main line opens with e4, 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 10 Morozov Balance Index: 10 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +44 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 862 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 55.0% (95% CI 41.3–67.9%).
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (52 half-moves): +32 → -13 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #86
- The king starts on d, the rooks on b and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 647 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to h8 (f6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (d4·85) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: bishop to f5 (g4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to e5 (f4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: bishop to f6 (g7·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: knight to g5 (h3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to c8 (b8) — Chess960 specifics · 1290
- Mate in 3: pawn to c6 (b5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on c5 (c1) — Chess960 specifics · 2120
This position appears in course day 51
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on b1 and e1. The bishops are on c1 and f1, one on each colour. The pawn on h2 begins without a defender, and the pawn on c2 leans on the king alone. The queen begins in the far corner on a1, the knights on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move. The engine takes the centre with e4, and White's edge here is a wide one, +44 centipawns: e4 a5 Ng3 b6 b3 e6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.