Starting position #887
Back-rank setup: RQBKRNNB
SP-887 · ThroneGuard — King home on d or e, knights kept off the a- and h-files — the family of the standard starting array.
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 a1 and e1, the queen on b1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: f2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 66.
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 16 Morozov Balance Index: 16 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +39 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 799 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +29 → +6 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #66
- The king starts on d, the rooks on a and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 584 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to f7 (g5·3) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g5 (f3·6) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g4 (e3·4) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d7 (d1·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to h2 (g1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: king to h1 (g1·24) — Chess960 specifics · 1110
- Winning blow: queen to h8 (d4·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: rook to b8 (b7·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1430
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a5 (c3·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Chess960 tactic on f1 (g1) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 6
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Commentary
The king begins on d1 and castling is ordinary in both directions, with the rooks on a1 and e1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with one diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on c1. Among the pawns, f2 is the one that begins without a defender. The queen is tucked away on b1, the knights on f1 and g1 — their reaches do not overlap, so the line writes Nf3 with no file letter. The engine does not touch a pawn first, and White's edge is +39 centipawns: Nf3 d6 d4 Ne6 c3 Nf6.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.