Starting position #884
Back-rank setup: RBBQKRNN
SP-884 · 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 a1 and f1, the queen on d1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-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 78.
The engine's main line opens with c3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 80 Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 182 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: volatile
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +40 → -25 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #78
- The king starts on e, the rooks on a and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 76 days
Puzzles from this position
- Winning blow: pawn to c7 (b6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g6 (h4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to e7 (e2·5) — Chess960 specifics · 850
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f1 (g3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: knight to f2 (g4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Mate in 2: knight to f6 (e4·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Mate in 2: queen to h7 (h3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1450
- Mate in 3: knight to f7 (d6·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: pawn to e6 (e5·16) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on f6 (d4·6) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 37
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Commentary
The queen starts on her classical square d1 with the king beside her on e1, and the rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone. The bishops stand side by side on b1 and c1, one on each colour. Two pawns begin without a defender, g2 and h2. The knights are on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move, and the second rook is on a1. White's edge is a narrow +17 centipawns, and the bishop from b1 reaches e4 by White's third move: c3 f5 e4 fxe4 Bxe4 Nf6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.