Starting position #885
Back-rank setup: RQBBKRNN
SP-885 · ThroneScout — Centre-file king, rim knight: 204 of the 960 positions share this pattern.
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 b1.
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 74.
The engine's main line opens with Nf3, bringing the knight out to f3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 92 Morozov Balance Index: 92 of 100 — class A — most balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +14 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 74 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- In 50 self-play games White scored 51.0% (95% CI 37.6–64.3%).
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (70 half-moves): +23 → +11 → 0 → -3 → -12
- Deeper check (1 200 000 000 nodes, depth 50): +14 cp, 0 cp against the base run — verified
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #74
- 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 535 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to b5 (a4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: knight to g3 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to h5 (g3·7) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f6 (e4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: bishop to e3 (c1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Mate in 2: queen to g3 (h4) — Chess960 specifics · 1410
- Mate in 3: rook to g6 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g7 (f5·30) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: queen to f5 (g5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on g4 (e4) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 26
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Commentary
The rook already occupies f1, so short castling moves the king alone from e1. 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 is tucked away on b1, the knights on g1 and h1 — the cornered one has g3 as its only move, and the second rook is on a1. The engine does not touch a pawn first — the knight goes from g1 to f3 — and White's edge is a narrow +14 centipawns: Nf3 Nf6 d4 d5 c3 Ng6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.