Starting position #94
Back-rank setup: NNRKRBBQ
SP-94 · 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 h1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 868.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
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 357 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): +27 → +31 → +8 → 0
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #868
- 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 1162 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (a5·17) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to d4 (g1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b7 (a8·4) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: king to b1 (c1·11) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b7 (a8·12) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Mate in 2: rook to e8 (e6·3) — Chess960 specifics · 1090
- Castling-960 to the rescue on c8 (d8) — Castling-960 · 1280
- Mate in 2: queen to e7 (d8) — Chess960 specifics · 1320
- Winning blow: rook to b1 (c1·10) — Chess960 specifics · 1610
- Mate in 3: rook to b7 (b3·3) — Chess960 specifics · 2170
This position appears in course day 14
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1, an exchange rather than a march. The queen begins in the corner on h1, a knight in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. The bishops stand together on f1 and g1. The pawns on a2 and b2 start with no defender at all. The main line of the run opens f4 f5, then Nc3 Nc6 and both sides castle long: O-O-O O-O-O.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.