Castling was invented because before it existed, everybody made the same maneuver by hand - making it a special move sped up the game.
Really -- there are a few situations where it's not necessary, or one side of the board is too dangerous too castle into, but those are the exceptions. Get your king out of the lethal center ASAP.
It's much, much, MUCH safer to castle than not. A king in the center is a fairly easy target.
its not safe to leave ur king in the center so try to always castle as fast as u can on the KINGSIDE sometimes queenside
Castling is a two-fold move; one, it places your king in an area that restricts the attacking options of your opponent, two, it developes the rook to the center. As a rule of thumb, castling is a good move. But if you castle into an attack, it probably isn't a good idea. Likewise, if you can execute a mating attack by NOT castling, then by all means do it. The only hard and fast rule in chess is that "mate leaves no weaknesses in it's wake" (GM A. Bisguier). Other than that, all rules in chess have exceptions. I hope this has helped.
Yeah as a beginner pretty much castle whenver you can. There are definity circumstances where you can leave your king in the center for longer, especially if the center is closed. There are some lines I know of in the Italian game where there is a danger of castling too early. Generally when the opponent can force open the g-file (if you castled kingside) when he himself hasn't castled, it can spell trouble.
I was curious as to whether you should castle early or not. Some people say your king is safer when you castle while I have been told it is not smart to castle as it may trap your king. Any thoughts?