"Operation Capture"

I have a question for you, Amber:
first, you write that you were just a few moves short of capturing an EMPTY CASTLE, and then you write: "the stupid AI made a gift and left the castle..." - I think there's some inconsistency here!!! Please explain how that happened?

The landing is on the ninth day. The tenth day can be spent capturing an empty Castle, but there aren't enough moves (without gloves) to reach it – it's a couple of squares short. So, on the tenth day, we just stand still – in the upper world, we don't go underground, because if we stop near the enemy's empty Castle, "dad" comes and destroys me in one turn.

The eleventh day begins – we are already closer, and therefore we can reach the Castle in one day – but the computer already sees me and heads to its Castle, so we can't directly kick it out of there. I capture its mine and move to a distance that is out of reach for the computer. During its turn on the eleventh day, the computer leaves the Castle to take the mine, but it doesn't have time to return to the Castle. On the twelfth day, I capture the empty Castle... Which could have been taken on the tenth day if I had gloves... :) So, I had to slowly approach the enemy for two days so that he would leave the Castle...