I like to leave my king in the center so it's already mobilized for the endgame.
castling. good or bad?

I like to leave my king in the center so it's already mobilized for the endgame.
You might not get to an endgame if you play someone who knows how to attack it.
To answer the question, depends on the situation.

The asnwer to your question is complicated. What is completely clear is that overuse of the castling move is extremely amateur. I have seen amateur games in which a player castles twice or even three times in a game. This is very sloppy chess. GM's almost never castle more than a single time per game.
I sometimes castle queenside if I make the mistake of castling kingside too early and my opponent attacks there.

You can't castle twice in a game! Do you mean manually?
You've never castled twice? What a patzer.
Yes, manually, I don't cheat with chess engines. You should keep it quiet if you do.

You can't castle twice in a game! Do you mean manually?
What are you talking about? One of the main tactics in chess is first castling kingside to prepare a pawnstorm and then castling to the queenside to make sure your own king isnt exposed after having done it.
Example: The kings indian
So you are saying that you can castle twice in two moves, or that you move the king a bunch of squares after castling once? Chill out Scottrf. I'm a 1250ish rated high school student.

King safety is one of the basic principles of an opening. Castling is an effective way to do this. I castle in about 90% of my games.
By the way, castling became a legal move in chess to balance out the game more. Without it the king would be stuck in the center and the game would too much be won by quick and aggressive play in the opening.

Personally I find castling with my own rook rather unimaginative -- castling with the opponent's rook gains material and nestles the king away safely while pieces are still being developed.

Personally I find castling with my own rook rather unimaginative -- castling with the [i]opponent's[/i] rook gains material and nestles the king away safely while pieces are still being developed.
how exactly do you castle with the opponent's rook?

To answer the question, depends on the situation.
@ OP : you will probably find that it's not an answer, but so it is.
To give you an idea, I castle in about 80-90% of my games, two thirds of which kingside (0-0) ; when I do not castle, it is usually because my opponent played weakly in the opening, and either opened the h or g file for my rook, or traded the queens.
So, the usual rule is to castle, but this rule has exceptions.

Personally I find castling with my own rook rather unimaginative -- castling with the opponent's rook gains material and nestles the king away safely while pieces are still being developed.
how exactly do you castle with the opponent's rook?
The same way you castle three times in the same game.

Well, one thing that I have learned about castling, and I didnt knew that, is that you may still castle after you have been in check.
I thought that was not allowed!

joeydvivre-that was without question the worst joke ever on chess.com

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By the way, castling became a legal move in chess to balance out the game more. Without it the king would be stuck in the center and the game would too much be won by quick and aggressive play in the opening.
That is not true, the king would not necessarily be stuck in the middle. In many games the King castles "by hand" the king moves up to his second rank and a rook moves to the center. Historically, castling was invented to speed up the game.

@Screener: Please go to this link and read Rule #6.
http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening

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By the way, castling became a legal move in chess to balance out the game more. Without it the king would be stuck in the center and the game would too much be won by quick and aggressive play in the opening.
That is not true, the king would not necessarily be stuck in the middle. In many games the King castles "by hand" the king moves up to his second rank and a rook moves to the center. Historically, castling was invented to speed up the game.
Ok thanks for correcting. I heard my version a while ago, and it seemed logical to me.
O.k, so i just found out about castling, and I lose every game I use it in. Is this happening to anyone else? Here's what castling is if you don't know what it is.