Initial position of kings and rooks

White has castled kingside (O-O) and Black has castled queenside (O-O-O)

Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. A game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for Enjoyment and sometimes also used as an Educational tool Chess is a recreational and competitive Game played between two players. In Chess, the King (♔ ♚ is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that it would not be able to avoid capture A rook, (♖ ♜ borrowed from Persian رخ rokh, Sanskrit rath, "chariot" also known as a castle is a piece in the Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook, then moving the rook onto the square over which the king crossed. ^[1] Castling is considered a king move.

The notation for castling, in both the descriptive and the algebraic systems, is 0-0 with the kingside rook and 0-0-0 with the queenside rook. Chess notation is the term for several systems that have developed to record either the moves made during a game of Chess or the position of the pieces on a chess board Descriptive chess notation, or just descriptive notation is a notation for recording Chess games and at one time was the most popular notation in Britain Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of Chess. This page explains commonly used terms in Chess in alphabetical order This page explains commonly used terms in Chess in alphabetical order In PGN, O-O and O-O-O are used instead. Portable Game Notation (PGN is a Computer -processible format for recording chess games (both the moves and related Data) many chess programs recognize Castling on the kingside is sometimes called castling short and castling on the queenside is called castling long; the difference being based on whether the rook moves a short distance (two squares) or a long distance (three squares).

Castling is in most non-English speaking nations known as 'Rochieren/Rochada/Roque', while 'long/short castling' are used in those countries to refer to 'queenside/kingside castling'. Castling is a relatively recent European innovation in chess, dating from the 14th or 15th century. Thus, the Asian versions of chess do not have such a move.

Requirements

Castling is permissible only if all of the following conditions hold:

1. The king must never have moved;
2. The chosen rook must never have moved;
3. There must be no pieces between the king and the chosen rook;
4. The king must not currently be in check.
5. The king must not pass through squares that are under attack by enemy pieces.
6. The king must not end up in check (true of any legal move).
7. The king and the chosen rook must be on the same rank. This page explains commonly used terms in Chess in alphabetical order ^[2]

It is a common mistake to think that the requirements for castling are even more stringent than the above. To clarify:

1. The king may have been in check previously, as long as it isn't in check at the time of castling.
2. The rook involved in castling may be under attack.
3. The rook involved in castling may move over an attacked square (a situation possible only with queenside castling).

Strategy

Castling is an important goal in the early part of a game, because it serves two valuable purposes: it moves the king into a safer position away from the center of the board, and it moves the rook to a more active position in the center of the board.

The choice as to which side to castle often hinges on an assessment of the trade-off between king safety and activity of the rook. Kingside castling is generally slightly safer, because the king ends up closer to the edge of the board and all the pawns on the castled side are defended by the king. In queenside castling, the king is placed closer to the center and the pawn on the a-file is undefended; the king is thus often moved to the b-file to defend the a-pawn and to move the king away from the center of the board. In addition, queenside castling requires moving the queen; therefore, it may take slightly longer to achieve than kingside castling. On the other hand, queenside castling places the rook more effectively — on the central d-file. It is often immediately active, whereas with kingside castling a tempo may be required to move the rook to a more effective square. In Chess, tempo refers to a "turn" or single move When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer moves he "gains a tempo" and conversely when

It is common for both players to castle kingside, and rare for both players to castle queenside. If one player castles kingside and the other queenside, it is called opposite castling. Castling on opposite sides usually results in a fierce fight as both players' pawns are free to advance to attack the opposing king's castled position without exposing the player's own castled king. An example is the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence. In Chess, one of the main variations of the Sicilian Defence, the Dragon Variation begins 1 The Sicilian Defence is a Chess opening that begins with the moves 1

If the king is forced to move before it has the opportunity to castle, the player may still wish to maneuver the king towards the edge of the board and the corresponding rook towards the center. When a player takes three or four moves to accomplish what castling would have accomplished in one move, it is sometimes called artificial castling, or castling by hand. In Chess, artificial castling, also known as castling by hand, refers to a maneuver in which a king who has lost the right to castle does

Technical rules

Under the strict touch-move rules enforced in most tournaments, castling is considered a king move. A player who intends to castle but touches the rook first would be committed to make a rook move, and thus will not be permitted to perform the castling. Therefore, the correct way to castle is to first move the king. As usual, the player's mind may change between all legal destination squares for the king until it is released. When the two-square king move is completed however, the player has formally chosen to castle (if it is legal), and the rook must be moved accordingly. A player who performs a forbidden castling must return the king and the rook to their original places and then move the king, if there is another legal king move.

It is also required by the official rules that the entire move is completed using only a single hand. Neither of these rules is commonly enforced in casual play, nor commonly known by non-competitive players.

Chess variants and problems

Some chess variants, for example Chess960, have modified castling rules to handle modified starting positions. A chess variant is a Game derived from related to or similar to Chess in at least one respect Chess960, or Fischer Random Chess (also written Fischerrandom and Fischerandom) is a Chess variant produced by the late former Castling can also be adapted to large chess variants, like Capablanca chess, which is played on 10x8 board. Capablanca chess is a Chess variant played on a 10x8 board The game is named after its inventor the former World chess champion, José Raúl Capablanca

In chess problems, castling is assumed to be allowed if it appears possible, unless it can be proved by retrograde analysis that either the king or chosen rook has previously moved. A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by somebody using Chess pieces on a Chess board that presents the solver with Retrograde analysis is a Technique employed by Chess problem solvers to determine which moves were played leading up to a given position

Notable castlings

Averbakh-Purdy, 1960

Black to move, castled queenside, with the rook going over the attacked square b8.

• In this game^[3] between Yuri Averbakh and Cecil Purdy, Black castled queenside, and Averbakh pointed out that the rook passed over a square controlled by White, so it was illegal. Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (born February 8, 1922, in Kaluga, Russia) is a Russian Chess Cecil John Seddon Purdy, ( March 27 1906 Port Said Egypt – November 6 1979 Sydney Australia Purdy proved that the castling was legal since this applies only to the king, to which Averbakh replied "Only the king? Not the rook?" (Evans 1970:38-39)

• Viktor Korchnoi, in his 1974 Candidates final match with Anatoly Karpov, famously asked the arbiter if castling was legal when the castling rook was under attack. Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (also Korchnoy Kortchnoy Kortschnoi etc Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (Анатолий Евгеньевич Карпов born May 23, 1951) is a Russian Chess grandmaster ^[4] The answer was in the affirmative, and Korchnoi ended up winning the game.

• Three castlings occurred in the game between Wolfgang Heidenfeld and Nick Kerins, in Dublin in 1973. Of course, the third one was illegal. See this link, "Greatest number of castlings".

• Tim Krabbé composed a joke chess problem containing vertical castling (king on e1, promoted rook on e8). Tim Krabbé (born April 13, 1943) is a Dutch Journalist and Novelist. The Chess problem, like other creative forms is best appreciated for serious artistic themes such as those named for Grimshaw, Novotny, and Lacny. The loophole in the definition of castling upon which this problem was based was removed by the new requirement that the castling rook must occupy the same rank as the king.

Variations throughout history

The rule of castling has varied by location and time. In medieval England, Spain, and France, the white king was allowed to jump to c1, c2, d3, e3, f3, or g1, if no capture was made, the king was not in check, and did not move over check. (The black king could move similarly. ) In Lombardy, the king could jump an additional square to b1 or h1 or to a2. Later in Germany and Italy, the king move was combined with a pawn move.

In Rome from the early 17th century until the late 19th century, the rook could be placed on any square up to and including the king's square, and the king could be moved to any square on the other side of the rook. This was called "free castling".

In the Göttingen manuscript and a game published by Luis Ramirez de Lucena in 1498, castling consisted of two moves: first the rook and then the king. The Göttingen manuscript is the earliest known work devoted entirely to modern Chess. Luis Ramirez de Lucena (c 1465 &ndash c1530 was a leading Spanish Chess player

The current version of castling was established in France in 1620 and England in 1640 (Sunnucks 1970:66).

Footnotes

1. ^ http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE101 FIDE rules (Castling is rule 3. 8, part ii)
2. ^ Without this additional restriction, which was added to the FIDE rules in 1972, it would be possible to promote a pawn on the e file to a rook and then castle vertically across the board (as long as the other conditions are met). This page explains commonly used terms in Chess in alphabetical order This way of castling was "discovered" by Max Pam and used by Tim Krabbé in a chess puzzle before the rules were amended to disallow it. Tim Krabbé (born April 13, 1943) is a Dutch Journalist and Novelist. The Chess problem, like other creative forms is best appreciated for serious artistic themes such as those named for Grimshaw, Novotny, and Lacny. See Chess Curiosities by Krabbé, see also de:Pam-Krabbé-Rochade for the diagrams online.
3. ^ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1329062 Averbakh-Purdy
4. ^ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067831 Korchnoi-Karpov

References

• Evans, Larry (1970), Chess Catechism, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-671-20491-2 

• Golombek, Harry (1977), Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Crown Publishing, ISBN 0-517-53146-1 

• Hooper, David & Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed. For the football player of the same name see Larry Evans (football player. Harry Golombek OBE ( March 1[[ 911]]– January 7 1995) was a British Chess International Master and honorary grandmaster David Vincent Hooper ( 31 August 1915 - May 1998 born in Reigate, was a British Chess player and writer Kenneth Whyld ( March 6, 1926 - July 11, 2003) was a British Chess author and researcher best known as the co-author (with The Oxford Companion to Chess is a reference Book on Chess written by David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld. ), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3 

• Just, Tim & Burg, Daniel B. (2003), U. S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (fifth ed. ), McKay, ISBN 0-8129-3559-4 

• Schiller, Eric (2003), Official Rules of Chess (second ed. Eric Schiller (born March 20, 1955 in New York) is an American Chess player trainer arbiter and author ), Cardoza Publishing, ISBN 978-1-58042-092-1 

• Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St. Avery Cardoza (born 1957 is an Author and Publisher. He owns Cardoza Publishing, which is partner company to Cardoza Games. Patricia Anne Sunnucks (born 21 February 1927) is an author and the several time British Women's Chess Champion (1957 1958 1964 Martins Press, ISBN 978-0709146971