Chess Basics – Castling Rules

“Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty” – Dominic Lawson

In this very short piece of work we will look at a chess novelty that was introduced to chess in 14th Century, the Castling. It is an extremely important move in Chess. Castling basically involves moving both the King and the Rook at the same time in a special way so that the King moves to a safe square and the Rook comes to the other side of the board to join the action. The move itself is a special move where two pieces move but counts as one move.

Why Castle? Castling helps a player to:

• 1.Provide protection and shelter to the King behind the pawns.

• 2.As mentioned earlier, the move also brings the powerful Rook into a good position either for attack or defense.

The King is the prime concern in game of Chess, if the King is checkmated then you lose. The King safety is important in each game and it is dangerous to leave the King in the middle of the board, where it is easier to be attacked.

By Castling, a player moves the King to a safety zone so that first of all it is safe and secondly so that it can focus on strategy to form an attack and win the game without any attacks at his King.

Thing to notice, is that Castling is optional and is not really an imperative, but it is a useful move that should not be taken lightly for granted. In many games as you will notice in your Chess career most players do Castle be it beginners or Grandmasters.

Castling can take place either on the King’s side or the Queen’s side. The following diagram demonstrates.

The King moves only two squares when Castling, either King’s side or the Queen’s side.

In Chess Notation Castling has a special form and is written as 0-0 for the King Side and 0-0-0 for the Queen’s side. You will also find out that castling on King’s side is called castling short while the Queen side castling is called castling long.

There are some rules regarding Castling just like many other Chess Rules, these rules just make the game more entertaining and give both players opportunity to hunt for the opponent’s King by forcing them to play a move that will not let the user Castle.

Castling Rules:

1.You cannot Castle if either the King or the Rook used in Castling has already moved at any point in the game.

2.All Squares between the King and the Rook must be clear and empty. Neither of the pieces can jump over any other pieces.

3.The King must be in safe position when Castling. The king must not be in check, you cannot use the castling to get out of Check.

4.Further the King cannot move into a Check. For example if a square is under attack then white or either black cannot castle because that brings the King into check.

• One important thing to note is that even though you cannot castle when your King is under attack, Castling is possible when the Rook is under attack and also in the case of the Queen side Castling, when the b1 or b8 square is under attack by opponent you can still castle.

This ends the part about Castling.