castling?

G,day all,

Do you always castle opposite your opponates castling? is there general rules or good ideas to castling? besides doing kings indian! too early,too late,what are the tell tale signs of time to castle? i have had games where all it did was corner the king and narrowed the kill sooner.Any ideas would be appriciated thanks.

Warloq.

From what I've come across King side castle is more frequent than Queen side. Also, I tend to not castle early in the game unless absolutely necessary because it prevents your opponent from targeting a castled king.  I also like to keep my pawns back rather than fianchettoing or moving either h3, h7, or a3, a6 because that makes castle defense stronger. not fail safe, though. Also, base castling on the development of all pieces. don't just castle opposite your opponent or even at the same time as your opponent.  Castling is more of a defensive move and loses time when you could be spent attaking or developing other pieces. 

But don't take my word for it! I am just an enthusiast and low skilled chess player. If anyone would challenge anything that I said I would be happy to hear cause I'm not all that great!

sometimes i like to castle opposite my opponent (usually queen side) because it makes for a more dramatic, dynamic game. a lot more attacking and excitement. that being said, i usually castle king side, and i usually castle fairly early on.

The problem with castling queen side is that the king doesn't protect that corner pawn.  It sure is nice to get the rook on an open file though!  Everything seems to be dependent upon the position.

I challenge that - generally speaking it's better to castle early because it's much easier to attack a king in the centre than a castled king, and moves like h3/a6 etc. actually weaken the castled position, so they shouldn't be played unless there's a good specific reason.

I wonder if there is a stat for what percentage of my games I castle 0-0, 0-0-0 or not at all? I suspect I Castle less frequently than most.

Castle kingside unless you gain attacking momentum by castling queenside. The king is more protected in a kingside castling.

Also, I'd say a fianchettoed bishop actually strenghtens the king's defence. I like to do so by playing indian style (KIA, KID, QID).

When you face an opponent with opposite castling, pawn storm the side where the king is, and don't move the pawns where your king is.