Pros and Cons of CASTLING QUEENSIDE

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EprinDark

May 4, 2012

The debate on whether castling queenside or kingside gives more benefits have been going on for years. Today, I hopefully can show you the pros and cons of Castling Queenside.

Castling Queenside is a difficult thing to do, and time. The satisfaction of a successful castling can be great, but so are the dangers of it. First, I will show you some mistakes when castling queenside.

No.1- Forks by knights.

The example above shows the knight and how it can easily fork the two rooks in a queenside castle. As well as that, if the queen is misplaced the knight can fork the queen as well.

No.2- When all your pieces are stuck on the king side.

In this case, it would be better for the White King to castle kingside, then begin to advance the queen side pawns. By castling Queenside, White cannot move his kingside pawns, and should not move his queenside pawns.

No.3- When castling queenside pins.

In this example, white's queen has been pinned to his king and he can do nothing to stop the queen from being taken.

Now, here are some of the pros.

No.1- Putting pressure on a piece.

By castling queenside, white exploits a weakness in black's defences, annialating the d-pawn.

No.2- To capture a piece.

In this example, white castles queenside to net himself a free rook, as the rook is powerless to escape because of check.

No.3- To protect a piece and to slow the opponent down.

In this example, white castled to protect his knight from the black knight on c6, and then hit back by capturing a bishop and a rook with the knight before being captured.

Most people who play black try to stay out of queenside castling. It is quite hard for black, as they have to get an extra piece out, while going after white.

Also, note that I might have made black or white look kind of amateur. Some of these might not happen real time.

So good luck out there, if you are to castle queenside, and I hope this forum taught you something.

Richard