Question regarding playing the computer

Hello,

I have a quick question that I've been wondering about for a while now, just haven't posted it.

As I'm playing the computer (medium/1200 level), when the computer plays a game where it castles it seems to play at a much higher level than when it doesn't.  I have a difficult time beating it when it castles, as its' moves seem to be much more sound and it doesn't do anything really noticeable in term of bad moves (at least to my limited chess eyes).

When it moves it's king out without castling I beat it regularly and often times quickly as it makes many more mistakes (often glaring).  I don't understand it since the computer is supposed to be playing around the 1200 level either way. 

Anybody else notice this or have any explanation?

There really aren't any engines these days that play at a 1200 level. So to imitate 1200 they force it to play badly on certain moves.

If the bad moves are random (e.g. it could be a setting that each move has a 20% chance of being the 3rd best move, or a move is played after calculating only a few moves deep). Then the number of errors each game will be random. Some games there will be a lot, other games not so many.

A different explanation could be that the more people that are challenging it at the same time, the worse it plays.

As for castling, it's easier to beat anyone when they don't castle because their position is (most often) necessarily worse.

Yes, that would be my logic too.  But, the issue is that when the computer plays a game in which it doesn't castle it rather routinely makes moves that are mistakes (by that I mean those that I can clearly see,which means obvious ones).  But, when it castles it never seems to make those kind of obvious mistakes.  I'm sure it's regularly making mistakes from a good player standpoint no matter which game it's playing, but if it castles I never see the beginner, scratch your head, mistake.

It just seems to me to play overall at a MUCH lower level if it doesn't castle and I don't understand why those obvious mistakes wouldn't be spread evenly out over all of the games, castled or not.

I don't know.

I've also noticed it seems to play strong one game and weak the next even though the setting remain the same.