What is Castling in Chess: Explaining the rules and When to Use

The allowance of castling with a “phantom rook” in handicap games has also been used in joke problems.[citation needed] Many other joke variations on castling are possible. Castling allows you to move your king and one rook anonymous simultaneously in a game. You must move the King towards the Rook 2 spaces instead of the usual 1 space.

Can You Castle After Being In Check?

Castling was part of the changes made to the original version of chess. As the power of the pieces were increased, the kings had to be given a means of escape. Instead of being in the heat of battle, they needed to be tucked safely away. These changes were made in the 15th century (see the history of chess).

When your king is already safe in the centre.

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  • Castles can also be made if the king is under attack.
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  • Understanding these principles will help you make better castling decisions, leading to stronger and more confident play.
  • If you have moved your king, then you are not allowed to castle.
  • In the context of threefold and fivefold repetition, two otherwise identical positions with different castling rights are considered to be different positions.
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  • If you do that to the side of the board that is closer to your king, we say you have castled kingside, or even that you have castled short.
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  • Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.
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Castling in such positions could be a waste of time, as the King is already secure, and you might have more active moves to play. In the 1811 edition of his chess treatise, Johann Allgaier introduced the 0-0 notation. He differentiated between 0-0r (right) and 0-0l (left). The notation for queenside castling was introduced in 1837 by Aaron Alexandre.[17] The practice was adopted in the first edition (1843) of the influential Handbuch des Schachspiels and soon became standard. In English descriptive notation, the word “Castles” was originally spelled out, adding “K’s R” or “Q’s R” if disambiguation was needed; eventually, the 0-0 and notation was borrowed from the algebraic system.

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Castling in Chess Infographic

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European chess codified the rules for casting as described above in the 17th century. Other forms of throwing found in older games differ from this. Sometimes, there’s no immediate threat in the centre, and your King is naturally safe behind a solid pawn structure. In such cases, castling may not be necessary right away.

Castling can also be adapted to variants with different board sizes and shapes. Some such variants, like Capablanca chess (10×8) or chess on a really big board (16×16), preserve the castling movement of the rooks, meaning that the king moves a different distance along the back rank. In a few variants, most notably Wildebeest chess (11×10), the player may choose to move the king any distance and move the rook accordingly. Castling originates from the king’s leap, a two-square king move added to European chess between the 14th and 15th centuries, and took on its present form in the 17th century. Local variations in castling rules were common, however, persisting in Italy until the late 19th century. Castling does not exist in Asian games of the chess family, such as shogi, xiangqi, and janggi, but it commonly appears in variants of Western chess.

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