Starting position #95
Back-rank setup: NNRKRQBB
SP-95 · ThroneScout — King in the middle of the rank, with a knight already committed to the 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 e1, the queen on f1.
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 h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
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 864.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Every sentence here is computed from the setup itself and can be checked on the board.
Balance
MBI 13 Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge.
- Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
- Rank 843 of 960 by balance — 1 is the most balanced start.
- Balance band L — large edge · dynamics along the play-out: stable
- Evaluation along the engine's main line (60 half-moves): +25 → +53 → +27 → +9
Position facts
- Mirror twin: position #864
- 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 562 days
Puzzles from this position
- Attack on the uncastled king: knight to b7 (c5) — Chess960 specifics · 620
- Winning blow: rook to f1 — Chess960 specifics · 780
- Attack on the uncastled king: rook to c1 (c2) — Chess960 specifics · 970
- Winning blow: rook to e7 (f7) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: queen to a7 (a5·2) — Chess960 specifics · 1010
- Winning blow: rook to b5 (b1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1200
- Winning blow: queen to d1 (d5) — Chess960 specifics · 1340
- Attack on the uncastled king: queen to b6 (g1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 1630
- Winning blow: rook to d4 (d1·13) — Chess960 specifics · 1870
- Chess960 tactic on e7 (e1·5) — Chess960 specifics · 2400
This position appears in course day 2
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Commentary
Long castling swaps the king on d1 with the rook on c1. A bishop holds the corner on h1 with a single diagonal to a8; the second bishop is on g1. A knight begins in the corner on a1 with b3 as its only move. The queen stands on f1 and the pawns on a2 and b2 begin with no defender at all. The engine's line opens g3, Black castles long at once with O-O-O, and it continues f4 g6 d4 d5.
Written from the measured facts above and checked against the board before publishing. All 960 positions have one.