Castling

kcdusk

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I normally castle on the kings side, mainly because the king side bishop and knight are so easy to clear out the way.

But, castling to the queenside does a much better job of centralising the Rook. When you castle king side the rook ends up on f1 (& often needs to be moved again anyway to clear the f2 pawn) whereas castling to the queen side moves the rook to d1 which is closer to the center and the d2 pawn often isnt in the way.

Thoughts on castling queenside, are there any "rules" or principles involved?
 

Scott Tortorice

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Not that I know of. I castle based upon the nature of my opponent's piece disposition. I like castling queenside, but not if it puts my king on the active side of the board, or if my opponent is in position to fork my rooks afterward.
 

peterk1

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One problem with the queen castle is that the a2 pawn can be unprotected for a bit and you have to slide the king over to protect.
Often, you want to castle on the side where you won't be moving your pawns. If you play the Queens's gambit with a fast queenside attack, then castling to that side is probably not a great idea.
 
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