to Castle or not to Castle?
By 23 Jul 10 on
9191 views | 5 edits | Last edit on 23 Jul 10
[b]Hi.
This week I'll give some stats on castling.
This is the thread that started it off.
Posted by Beetlebomb on the 22nd of July 2007.
I'm playing a rather good new player who has good vision but knows
little Chess theory.
I can't convince him to Castle. He can't see any value in it and
wants to know why? It's been years since I've read a Chess book
and I'm just getting back into it myself, this site is amazing!
Anyone have something I could pass on to him?
“Castle because you have too, not because you can.” Richard Reti
Clever stuff this. Start every paragraph with a thought provoking comment.
It’s straight from the ACME Correspondence School for writing chess books.
We are all told to Castle early. It makes sense.
Get you King out the centre and away from the open files.
Develop a Rook by bring it in from the cold and towards the centre.
(where the open files are!).
We see the above and a whole troop of us smile in a condescending way,
shake our heads, quote the experts. (I quoted Karpov) and hit these fresh ideas
with a resounding NO that echoes throughout the forum.
Got some cold stats for you.
On the 1400 DB there have been 19,250 checkmates between 6 and 20 moves.
I chose cold checkmates because it is King safety we are talking about and it
also cuts out all the resignations due to a pieces lost and time outs.
White mates = 11,637
Black mates = 7,613.
White 0-0 and got mated = 3,444
White 0-0-0 and got mated = 527
White uncastled and mated = 3,642
Black 0-0 and got mated = 4,073
Black 0-0-0 and got mated = 618
Black uncastled and mated= 6,946
Not much of a difference between White 0-0 and not castling is there.
Think this highlights the inability of a weaker player to defend himself against
attacks to his King.
Safest advice to give to a less experienced player based on these figures is to Castle Queenside.
Hey Gramps. Everyone in the General Forum is calling me a liar.
I don’t believe that.
OK staying with castling. Players castling into mate in one.
So far I have found 116 examples of this on the 1400 database.
I’ll show 4.
Here is the shortest. 7 moves.
Bobla45 - SammyJ, RHP 2008
Next we see White winning easily but stopping mid-attack to defend a lowly g-pawn.
He drops a piece and castles giving Black a happy choice of mate on g2 or h1.
skullinator - TryorFail, RHP 2009 (16 moves)
What comes around goes around - learning from your losses.
In a safe and tepid position Tukumnieks castles and is mated on the spot.
(we see this lad again in the next game)
Tukumnieks - Blanca, RHP 2008 (11 moves)
Here is the longest game (25 moves) it does appear that Black is going
to do the check mating in this game.
Note White’s ultra cunning 24th. move.
Here he can play 24.QxR+ and Qf3 but no, he is waiting for 0-0-0.
This is our hero Tukumnieks in action again, this time he knows the danger
of castling without thinking.
Tukumnieks - sameeh, RHP 2008
This week I'll give some stats on castling.
This is the thread that started it off.
Posted by Beetlebomb on the 22nd of July 2007.
I'm playing a rather good new player who has good vision but knows
little Chess theory.
I can't convince him to Castle. He can't see any value in it and
wants to know why? It's been years since I've read a Chess book
and I'm just getting back into it myself, this site is amazing!
Anyone have something I could pass on to him?
“Castle because you have too, not because you can.” Richard Reti
Clever stuff this. Start every paragraph with a thought provoking comment.
It’s straight from the ACME Correspondence School for writing chess books.
We are all told to Castle early. It makes sense.
Get you King out the centre and away from the open files.
Develop a Rook by bring it in from the cold and towards the centre.
(where the open files are!).
We see the above and a whole troop of us smile in a condescending way,
shake our heads, quote the experts. (I quoted Karpov) and hit these fresh ideas
with a resounding NO that echoes throughout the forum.
Got some cold stats for you.
On the 1400 DB there have been 19,250 checkmates between 6 and 20 moves.
I chose cold checkmates because it is King safety we are talking about and it
also cuts out all the resignations due to a pieces lost and time outs.
White mates = 11,637
Black mates = 7,613.
White 0-0 and got mated = 3,444
White 0-0-0 and got mated = 527
White uncastled and mated = 3,642
Black 0-0 and got mated = 4,073
Black 0-0-0 and got mated = 618
Black uncastled and mated= 6,946
Not much of a difference between White 0-0 and not castling is there.
Think this highlights the inability of a weaker player to defend himself against
attacks to his King.
Safest advice to give to a less experienced player based on these figures is to Castle Queenside.
Hey Gramps. Everyone in the General Forum is calling me a liar.
I don’t believe that.
OK staying with castling. Players castling into mate in one.
So far I have found 116 examples of this on the 1400 database.
I’ll show 4.
Here is the shortest. 7 moves.
Bobla45 - SammyJ, RHP 2008
Next we see White winning easily but stopping mid-attack to defend a lowly g-pawn.
He drops a piece and castles giving Black a happy choice of mate on g2 or h1.
skullinator - TryorFail, RHP 2009 (16 moves)
What comes around goes around - learning from your losses.
In a safe and tepid position Tukumnieks castles and is mated on the spot.
(we see this lad again in the next game)
Tukumnieks - Blanca, RHP 2008 (11 moves)
Here is the longest game (25 moves) it does appear that Black is going
to do the check mating in this game.
Note White’s ultra cunning 24th. move.
Here he can play 24.QxR+ and Qf3 but no, he is waiting for 0-0-0.
This is our hero Tukumnieks in action again, this time he knows the danger
of castling without thinking.
Tukumnieks - sameeh, RHP 2008
