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Subject: Re: Opposite side castling

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 19:59:41 02/19/98

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On February 19, 1998 at 21:44:09, Howard Exner wrote:

>A game from KKup2 has reached a point where CM5500 (black) can go
>a pawn up against Fritz by playing Rxh5 but I think that could be the
>wrong
>plan in this opposite side castling game. This could ultimately result
>in a white initiative as such pawns are commonly sacrificed anyway.
>Another interesting opposite side castling game is the Crafty vs
>Rebel.
>   A question for programmers: do you incorporate chess
>knowledge to deal with opposite side castling situations ie. giving
>bonuses for advancing the pawns and opening lines to the opposing
>king? Is this still a good anti - computer technique for humans
>to employ, namely castling on opposite wings?

Crafty probably handles this case better, because on same-wing castling,
it is *very* difficult to decide which side benefits from opening lines
since if you open a file on your opponent's king you also open that same
file on your own king.  The very first game I saw Crafty play against
Rebel 9
had just such a position.  Rebel played what looked like a reasonable
attacking move, but it backfired almost instantly.

If you castle opposite, it is easier to figure out what is going on and
who is going to open the opposite king field first...

So to answer your question, I don't do anything special for
opposite-wing
castling, because that is actually easier for me to properly evaluate.
It's
the same-wing castling that gets me (crafty) into more problems, because
it's
a fine line between attacking your opponent and helping him attack you.
Easy
for *me* to figure this out, but not easy for Crafty, yet...



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