7

Why is castling here:

[fen "r3kbnr/2p1pppp/p1p5/q7/3P2b1/2N2N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQK2R w KQkq - 0 8"]
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not as good as Qd3. I get that Qd3 gets us out of the pin, but, what's so wrong about castling? There is a whole 1.3 point of difference according to StockFish.

1 Answer 1

5

If White castles and Black plays Qf5 followed by Bxf3, the resulting position is about equal.

But White can do better than equal. Black hasn't yet moved any of their kingside pieces, and they have doubled isolated pawns on the queenside. There's no reason why White should allow Black to give them doubled isolated pawns as well. (I'm guessing Stockfish can see far enough to know that one of Black's isolated pawns will fall in the Qd3 line.)

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