Starting position #896
Back-rank setup: BBRKQRNN
SP-896 · 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 d1, the rooks on c1 and f1, the queen on e1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
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 63.
The engine's main line opens with b3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 18 Morozov Balance Index: 18 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +38 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 779 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band M — moderate edge · dynamics along the play-out: sharpening
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +32 → +57 → +44 → +20
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #63
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and f
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 1255 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to c4 (b3·2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: pawn to e5 (f4·43) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: rook to h5 (c5) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: rook to g2 (f2·2) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to g2 (h1·3) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: bishop to d4 (a1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to e4 (f5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1250
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to g8 (h7·17) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Winning blow: queen to d6 (b4·9) — Chess960 specifics · 1650
- Chess960 tactic on b6 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 24
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1, while the rook already occupies f1, so the short one moves the king alone. The queen starts on e1, just beside the king. A bishop holds the corner on a1 with one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on b1. 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. White's edge is +38 centipawns, though the engine opens quietly with b3: b3 f6 c4 b6 f3 c5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.