Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 11:45:18 08/25/99
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On August 24, 1999 at 19:51:18, KarinsDad wrote: >And quite frankly, it probably rarely is, but it could be. Any other move on the >board COULD be zugzwang and lead to loss of material or lead to mate (e.g. Kf1), >so I could see a situation where one would want to castle and since this >activates the rook, it could change the position drastically towards progress >(and hence by your idea, it would be a valid reason to reset the counter). This is why I mentioned "freakish cases". This could be true of *any* move on the board. If the ending was a mate in 78 at the root, and both sides have been playing optimally, after 50 moves with no pawn moves or captures, the weaker side is still forced to compromise his position with his next move. It could be a full zugzwang, meaning that if the weaker side could pass it would be a complete draw. You can prove any of this with endgame tables. The point is that captures and pawn moves almost always demonstrate progress. That is the point of almost every low-material endgame -- to win a piece, to simplify into a won case, or to queen a pawn. It is not commonly accepted that castling is one of the moves that gets you closer to a winning or losing endgame. You can construct cases where this could be true, but you could also construct cases where one side is trying to force the other to move some other (non-pawn) piece. *That* is not an exception to the 50-move rule, and neither should this be. bruce
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