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I am planning to introduce a completely new idea for chess, on this board, with a series of posts, over the next few days.
The idea is 'Castling Classification', or 'Cascla'. I've invented this term, which is a completely new word, so far as I have been able to determine. As well, in my search of chess literature, so far as I can determine, no one has discussed these ideas before.
Cascla is a concept to summarize a chess game's properties with respect to castling and result. As such, it is a strategic framework in a chess theoretical setting.
Cascla identifies whether each player castles, which side castling occurs on, which player castles first, the 'lag' (separation of half-moves, or ply), between the players castling, and the game's result (won for either side, or drawn).
Cascla does all of this with a shorthand notation which I have invented, and will explain in the following material.
There are 39 distinct Casclas, and I have put together a series of games illustrating each one, which will be posted in the days ahead.
All of this may sound confusing, so let us look at a basic example. The most common castling pattern seen in games so far in chess history is when both players castle on the Kingside.
Dr. Stephen Hughes -- Frank Dixon
Kingston Autumn Open (5), 2016-12-12
English Opening, 1.c4 e5, A21
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 f5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 Be7 6.e3 O-O 7.Nge2 Qe8 8.h3 d6 9.O-O a6 10.Qa4?! Bd7 11.Qd1 Rb8 12.a3 b5 13.cxb5 axb5 14.b4 Be6 15.Bb2 Qd7 16.Kh2 d5 17.d4 e4 18.Nf4 Bf7 19.f3 g5 20.Nfe2 exf3 21.Bxf3 Bd6! 22.Bg2 Ne7 23.Qd2 h6 24.Qd3 c6 25.Bc1 Rbe8 26.Bd2?! Bg6! 27.e4 dxe4 28.Qe3 Ned5 29.Qg1 Kh7 30.Nd1 Nh5 31.Qf2 Qc7 32.Kg1 Nxg3 33.Nxg3 Bxg3 0-1.
[White, down two pawns, will be losing at least a piece after 34.Qe2 f4.]
So much for the game. Now for the Cascla. In this game, both players castled Kingside, but Black castled first, and won the game.
I describe the game as follows: (K-/K'+/5), using symbols on the common keyboard, and not requiring any fancy new symbols.
White is listed first inside the bracket, Black second. A ' designates which player castled first, here Black. The 5 indicates 5 half-moves between Black's castling and White's castling. The + and - indicate winner and loser; a drawn game would see each side denoted by '='.
What is the point of this idea, one may ask? Its value will come upon general acceptance by the chess world, whereby each game in a database would eventually have a Cascla in its game header information. One could then search by Cascla, to examine patterns within opening variations, to examine patterns of players, and to determine the success and prevalence of strategic plans involving castling. A Cascla can be determined by simply examining a game score, and does not require one to play through the game to get it. A smart software program would be able to assign Casclas to database games without having them added manually.
Stay tuned. I plan to illustrate each of the 39 Casclas using games played by outstanding Canadian players, insofar as possible, along with more on the motivation, framework, and scalability.
This is my gift to the chess world, and I have timed it for the holiday season! :)
Cheers,
Frank Dixon
Kingston
The idea is 'Castling Classification', or 'Cascla'. I've invented this term, which is a completely new word, so far as I have been able to determine. As well, in my search of chess literature, so far as I can determine, no one has discussed these ideas before.
Cascla is a concept to summarize a chess game's properties with respect to castling and result. As such, it is a strategic framework in a chess theoretical setting.
Cascla identifies whether each player castles, which side castling occurs on, which player castles first, the 'lag' (separation of half-moves, or ply), between the players castling, and the game's result (won for either side, or drawn).
Cascla does all of this with a shorthand notation which I have invented, and will explain in the following material.
There are 39 distinct Casclas, and I have put together a series of games illustrating each one, which will be posted in the days ahead.
All of this may sound confusing, so let us look at a basic example. The most common castling pattern seen in games so far in chess history is when both players castle on the Kingside.
Dr. Stephen Hughes -- Frank Dixon
Kingston Autumn Open (5), 2016-12-12
English Opening, 1.c4 e5, A21
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 f5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 Be7 6.e3 O-O 7.Nge2 Qe8 8.h3 d6 9.O-O a6 10.Qa4?! Bd7 11.Qd1 Rb8 12.a3 b5 13.cxb5 axb5 14.b4 Be6 15.Bb2 Qd7 16.Kh2 d5 17.d4 e4 18.Nf4 Bf7 19.f3 g5 20.Nfe2 exf3 21.Bxf3 Bd6! 22.Bg2 Ne7 23.Qd2 h6 24.Qd3 c6 25.Bc1 Rbe8 26.Bd2?! Bg6! 27.e4 dxe4 28.Qe3 Ned5 29.Qg1 Kh7 30.Nd1 Nh5 31.Qf2 Qc7 32.Kg1 Nxg3 33.Nxg3 Bxg3 0-1.
[White, down two pawns, will be losing at least a piece after 34.Qe2 f4.]
So much for the game. Now for the Cascla. In this game, both players castled Kingside, but Black castled first, and won the game.
I describe the game as follows: (K-/K'+/5), using symbols on the common keyboard, and not requiring any fancy new symbols.
White is listed first inside the bracket, Black second. A ' designates which player castled first, here Black. The 5 indicates 5 half-moves between Black's castling and White's castling. The + and - indicate winner and loser; a drawn game would see each side denoted by '='.
What is the point of this idea, one may ask? Its value will come upon general acceptance by the chess world, whereby each game in a database would eventually have a Cascla in its game header information. One could then search by Cascla, to examine patterns within opening variations, to examine patterns of players, and to determine the success and prevalence of strategic plans involving castling. A Cascla can be determined by simply examining a game score, and does not require one to play through the game to get it. A smart software program would be able to assign Casclas to database games without having them added manually.
Stay tuned. I plan to illustrate each of the 39 Casclas using games played by outstanding Canadian players, insofar as possible, along with more on the motivation, framework, and scalability.
This is my gift to the chess world, and I have timed it for the holiday season! :)
Cheers,
Frank Dixon
Kingston
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