Starting position #928
Back-rank setup: BBRKRNQN
SP-928 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
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 e1, the queen on g1.
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.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 31.
The engine's main line opens with d4, 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 65 Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 320 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band S — slight edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +24 → +25 → +18 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #31
- The king starts on d, the rooks on c and e
- King and rook are neighbours — castling from adjacent squares feels unusual
- It becomes the daily position in 361 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: king to c1 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d3 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Winning blow: pawn to f5 (g4·4) — Chess960 specifics · 920
- Winning blow: king to c2 (d1·6) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: queen to h5 (e8) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to a5 (c3·8) — Chess960 specifics · 1280
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to b2 (d4·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1390
- Mate in 3: rook to a6 — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to f6 (g6) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Mate in 3: rook to h8 (d8·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1990
This position appears in course day 15
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1. A bishop holds the corner on a1 with one diagonal to h8; the second bishop is on b1. Every pawn on the second rank begins with a defender — this setup concedes nothing on move one. The queen is on g1, the knights on f1 and h1 — both can reach g3, so a knight move there has to name its file, and the second rook is on e1. White's edge is a narrow +22 centipawns, and Black's rook comes down its own file to take back: d4 c5 dxc5 f6 Nd2 Rxc5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.