Tags: Chess Special Moves, chess castling, castling

Chess Games Special Moves: Castling

“Castling is a special move involving the King and either Rook.“

“Castling moves two pieces. First, move the King two squares toward the Rook.“

“Then put the Rook on the other side of the King.”

“You can castle with either Rook.“

“If the King moves toward the nearer Rook (on the King’s side of the board),“

“it is called CASTLING KINGSIDE (written O-O).”

“If the King moves toward the other Rook (on the Queen’s side of the board),“

“it is called CASTLING QUEENSIDE (written O-O-O).“

“To be legal, the King and Rook must not have moved from their starting squares,“

“the squares between the King and Rook must be unoccupied,“

“the King cannot be in check“

“and the square that the King passes over cannot be under attack. Of course, the King can never be moved INTO check, so the destination can’t be under attack either.“

“It is usually a good idea to castle early in the game, as it protects the King and gives the Rook a chance to control the center files.”

Chess Castling Strategy

Castling is an important goal in the early part of a game, because it serves two valuable purposes: it moves the king into a safer position away from the center of the board, and it moves the rook to a more active position in the center of the board.

The choice as to which side to castle often hinges on an assessment of the trade-off between king safety and activity of the rook. Kingside castling is generally slightly safer, because the king ends up closer to the edge of the board and all the pawns on the castled side are defended by the king. In queenside castling, the king is placed closer to the center and the pawn on the a-file is undefended; the king is thus often moved to the b-file to defend the a-pawn and to move the king away from the center of the board. In addition, queenside castling requires moving the queen; therefore, it may take slightly longer to achieve than kingside castling. On the other hand, queenside castling places the rook more effectively — on the central d-file. It is often immediately active, whereas with kingside castling a tempo may be required to move the rook to a more effective square.

It is common for both players to castle kingside, and rare for both players to castle queenside. If one player castles kingside and the other queenside, it is called opposite castling. Castling on opposite sides usually results in a fierce fight as both players’ pawns are free to advance to attack the opposing king’s castled position without exposing the player’s own castled king. An example is the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence.

If the king is forced to move before it has the opportunity to castle, the player may still wish to maneuver the king towards the edge of the board and the corresponding rook towards the center. When a player takes three or four moves to accomplish what castling would have accomplished in one move, it is sometimes called artificial castling, or castling by hand.

Tags: en passant, chess en passant, Chess Special Moves

Chess Games Special Moves: En Passant

“En Passant is a special type of capture move for Pawns ONLY.“

“Pawn takes Pawn, en passant“

“You may capture en passant ONLY when your opponent moved a Pawn two squares forward on the previous move.“

“This is a useful move when your opponent tries to sneak a Pawn past yours by moving two squares.“

“But remember: If you wish to capture en passant, you must do so on your very next move.”

En Passant

If player A’s pawn moves forward two squares and player B has a pawn on his or her fifth rank and on an adjacent file, B’s pawn can capture A’s pawn as if A’s pawn had only moved one square. This capture can only be made on the immediately subsequent move. In this example, an en passant capture would remove the black pawn and the white pawn would move to the f6 square, marked by an “x”