PART 2 • The chess tree
The number is the “Success column” shows us how
successful the move was, based on the games in which
the move was played. The easiest way to understand the
Success percentage is to think of the 15,999 games in which
the move was played as representing a “pool” of points. As
you may know, in a chess tournament the winner of a game
scores one point (toward the final tournament standings),
while the loser gets zero points. If a game is drawn, the
players split the point, each of them scoring one-half of a
point. If you think of the 15,999 games as representing a pool
of 15,999 points, we see that White's success percentage
after castling Kingside is 55%; this means that White earned
55% of the 15,999 available points (or approximately 8,799
points) through winning and drawing games. Note that the
Success percentage is always given from the point of view
of the moving side; the higher the success percentage, the
better the moving side scored after making that move. If we
use the scroll bar to the right-hand side of the tree to scroll to
the bottom of the list of moves:
• ...we see that White scored 100% in the single game in which Kf1 was
played in this position. It means that the one time White played this
move, the player of the White pieces won the game. Conversely, we
see that c4 was played in two games with a 0% Success percentage;
that means that White lost both of those games.
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