There's also a third option which is to not castle at all. This can be risky but in some positions it can be the best option. For a start, if a lot of pieces get exchanged off and your opponent has castled but you haven't, then your more centralised king can be an advantage in the endgame. Also you sometimes have a situation where there are good reasons not to castle either side, e.g. your opponents pieces are queueing up to kill the king if he goes K-side, but if he goes Q-side he will get in the way of your own attacking plans.
Queen side vs. King side Castle
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I'm new to chess.com. How do you King side castle? What buttons do you press?
rubgonzales wrote:
I'm new to chess.com. How do you King side castle? What buttons do you press?
Grab your king and move it two spaces left or right. The server will do the rest. If you try to castle by moving your rook next to the king, the server will conclude you intended to move your rook and not castle.
-Kingside is usually safer and usually means you should attack on the Queenside, since you can push pawns there without weakening your own King.
-Queenside is usually more aggressive and opposite sides Castling often leads to both sides going straight for the opponent King, not usually fooling around too much trying to win material.
-If you Castle Queenside, you should often spend a tempo moving the King to e.g. b1 just to solidify, though your Queenside Rook may be already active on the 'd' file.
-If you Castle Kingside, you usually need to spend a tempo activating the Kingside Rook.
-Many players state that it's best to Castle wherever your opponent is not attacking, and while it sounds wise in theory, in practice it isn't usually. In the KID, White is perfectly well to Castle Kingside, straight into Black's pawn storm. In the Sicilians and French, White often Castles Queenside, where Black has more space.
-You may not want to Castle too early. If you have a move available which yields any kind of reward, take it instead of Castling, as long as your King is in no danger. Often, the King is safe, yet more active being played toward the center in more closed positions such as the French if you still have not Castled by the endgame.
-It's almost never a bad idea to Castle Kingside. It's often a bad idea to Castle Queenside; therefore, if you're having trouble deciding, go Kingside.
DJS200 wrote:
I was wondering what the conventional wisdom is regarding castling towards the queen side vs. the king side.
Any thoughts?
Isolating 0-0 vs. 0-0-0 is a mistake. Everything depends on what opening you are in. Or if it is an irregular opening everything depends on the pawn structure of the position.
I always feel that your King is safer in the Queenside, unless your plan is Queen side expansion and space annexing.
Neither castling kingside or castling queenside is better than the other. In general players tend to castle kingside b/c it can be done faster in many openings.
If I had to put numbers on it...
Probably 60% of the time king side castling is best.
Then about 35% of the time castling queen side is good.
However about 5% of the time it's best not to castle.
what's castling?
A match with a friend and I used Queenside castling on the game. I recommend that you only use this castle when playing white. (Note: This is the first time I tried Queenside castling.)
Here are some of the benefits I learned by queenside castle.
- Brings the rook to a more active square
- A queenside attack is efficient
- It gives the player more space to initiate an attack.
- Gives the player more tempos for attack as pawn exchanges in the center can be done before the castling. (Much profitable for white)
Note: The black square bishop became a huge decisive factor for this game.
Dec 10, 2014
0
#31
Zegaloft,
You missed 18. Rxd7!
If 18...Nxd7 then 19. Qxc7, and Black has lost his queen,
or if 18...Qxd7 19 Rxd7 Nxd7, and White is 2 material points ahead (9 + 3 = 12 gained versus 5 + 5 = 10 lost).
Anyway, to get back on topic, here's what Pandolfini says about the dangers of castling queenside:
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(p. 89)
24
AILMENT:
Castling and losing a pawn.
It's easy to overlook and drop a pawn, if not worse.
When your king is in the center and your queen-
rook is unmoved, QR2 and KB2 are guarded: QR2
by the rook, and KB2 by the king. But once you
castle queenside, neither points are held up by their
original defenses. So if these squares are attacked
before castling, they're particularly vulnerable after
castling. Captures of pawns on these squares could
very well be demolishing. Imagine White's shock,
castled queenside, suddenly seeing Black's queen
swoop down on a2.
Rx
1. Before castling queenside, take one last look at
two points: QR2 and KB2.
2. If they are already under attack, don't castle with-
out weighing the consequences.
3. Determine if you can allow the enemy to capture
or invade on those squares.
4. If you can't, castle kingside if it seems good.
5. Or take steps to safeguard these potential targets
so that you can then castle queenside afterward.
6. If your opponent is about to castle queenside,
take aim at his QR2 and/or KB2.
7. Do this several moves before your opponent cas-
tles queenside and he might overlook the danger.
Pandolfini, Bruce. 1995. The Chess Doctor. New York: Simon & Schuster.
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And here's what Fischer said about moving K-QN1 after O-O-O in the *Sicilian Defense* (not in general), since in the Sicilian Defense Black attacks along the "c" file, where White's K is right in line on that file at c1 after White castles queenside...
----------
(p. 213)
12 Q-Q2 B-K3
13 O-O-O O-O
14 P-B3 R-B1
14 K-N1 . . .
Amateurs are often puzzled by this apparent loss of time.
Actually it is a handy defensive move, getting out of the pin on the
(p. 214)
QB-file which could become annoying after . . .P-QN4-5.
One never knows when lightning will strike!
Fischer, Bobby. 1969. My 60 Memorable Games. New York: Simon and Schuster.
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Personally, I still always move my king to QN1 after O-O-O except in special cases, like if it's a very tactical opening (for whatever reason) and there isn't time, or if it's near the endgame and there are no threats that concern me near my king.
Dec 11, 2014
0
#33
khalim wrote:
LokiMundane wrote:
I played a street player otb in Chicago who's whole strategy was based on attacking a king side castle. On the second and third games I refrained from casteling and his whole game fell apart.
Man... I absolutely HATE to give away my game... but many times (upon jumping back into the game after about 2 years) I've found that NOT castling leaves an opponent confused and enables me to focus more on material gain. Of course if they focused more on that too, instead of which direction I would castle on, then I'd be in bad shape. I've always held castling to be an escape... not a strategy. I'm sure it's possible to make my opponent's castle part of my strategy... but I'm not there yet. I mean hey... can't you "force" someone to castle kingside and have an attack in mind on that side anyway?
Sqod, yeah I found that line too while examining our match since I recorded it in a PGN file, his timer is near it's end about 10 seconds after Rhd1 of course, who wouldn't make a mistake when he/she is under pressure.
May 15, 2017
0
#35
Does it make me a GM, if i answer every question about general strategy with "It depends on the overall position"?
castling depends on the area of an attack if your king side is under attack and more officials are being traded .... "facing a gm " then it is advisable not to castle too early until the night is over then the king can go to safety or better still don't castle at all sometimes the king is safer being in the middle
castling depends on the area of an attack if your king side is under attack and more officials are being traded .... "facing a gm " then it is advisable not to castle too early until the night is over then the king can go to safety or better still don't castle at all sometimes the king is safer being in the middle
castling depends on the area of an attack if your king side is under attack and more officials are being traded .... "facing a gm " then it is advisable not to castle too early until the night is over then the king can go to safety or better still don't castle at all sometimes the king is safer being in the middle
iTzJoE91 wrote:
I prefer Queen castle. As the first comment suggests though it absolutely depends on the position of the opponents pieces. If it appears they have been preparing for a king side attack then castle queen. I also like to do this because most people seem to castle king side and it allows me to use my king side pawns in a pawn march to attack the other player's castle and allows for me king to be safe.
That's a very good point. One can castle queen side and then use pawns to attack opponents king.
As previously stated it all depends on the specific position. You cannot begin the game with a plan to castle either side regardless of your opponents opening choice. Queenside castling can lead to a more aggressive formation but of course you need the available time to do so as it takes an extra move to get the queen out first (and an appropriate square for the queen which is not always clear) plus you will likely have to move Kc1-b1 as well to shield the king from checks on the c1-h6 diagonal so in the time it takes to do this your opponent can organise some threats of their own. In my view queenside castling is a nice luxury if you can get away with it. Super rare to safely castle queenside as black.