How Do I Castle in Chess? | Castling | ChessKid

Today Chess Kids, we move on to one of the special rules of chess. This one's called Castling. I know some of you might think that the rook is called a castle, but the reason we call it a rook is so we don't get confused. Castling is like building a castle. Now maybe you've built a sand castle before, but I doubt you went up to your parents at the beach and said, I'm gonna go sand castling. We don't use it as a verb very often in real life, but in chess, we use it as a verb all the time. Well, let's get castling. This is the only move in chess where you can move two pieces at the same time. Castling is only with the king and the rook. No other piece is involved. Let's take a look at what happens when you castle. When there's nothing between your king and your rook, you can pick up your king and travel two squares toward the rook. That's not normal either, of course. The king usually only goes one square, but castling is a super special move. You drop the king two squares, and the rook jumps on the other side of the king. Now when I let go, watch carefully, because the computer is going to do the rest of the action for me. I dropped the king, and almost as fast, the rook jumped over the king. So three things happen there that are not normal to regular chess. Number one, you get to move two pieces at the same time. Number two, your king got to move two squares, not one. And number three, your rook got to jump over something. But look at why we have this. When you castle, you get your king behind a wall of pawns. I like to think of it as putting your king to sleep at night. He's got a nice warm blanket of pawns to keep him warm, and he's got a rook which is kind of like the pillow or the teddy bear to keep him safe. In this chess position, the white king is much safer than before, because those pawns give him some shelter. Now it's black's turn. Black is going to castle here using his other rook on the queen side. Again, the thing to remember is that the king always travels two squares. So it might look normal to you to go all the way to this square, but that's too far. That'd be going three squares. When you castle to the queen side, or even the king side, you always move one, two. And when I drop it, the computer had the rook jump over lightning fast. I know that this king is a little bit further from the corner of the chessboard than the white king, but that's just the way you castle. You may castle with either rook. What's important to remember is that the king always moves two squares, and the rook jumps over the king on the square right beside the king. Don't go any further with that rook, okay? Now that seems simple enough. However, there's actually five times in chess where castling may not be allowed. Let's add a new piece of the board. This bishop just flew in from outer space to play a part here, okay? The first time in chess that you cannot castle is if there's something in the way. In this position, white's not allowed to castle because the bishop is in the way. If I try to pick up my king and land on this square two squares away, the computer is not going to let me do it. He made me do a take back there. So if there's something in the way, you cannot put your king in a castle. Just like real life, if you've got toys and books and games on your bed, you can't go to bed. You've got to clear all that stuff out of the way first, okay? So, reason number one you can't castle is if there's something in the way. Let's move on to reason number two. You're not allowed to castle in a chess game if you are in check. Let's have white have this bishop travel all the way out to the square b5. Is black's king in danger? Yeah, of course he is. He's in check. When you're in check, we learned you can do c, p, or r. And the c does not stand for castle. Remember, it stands for capture. Capture, protect, or run away. Castling is not allowed when you're in check. The third reason you are not allowed to castle is if you have moved your king at any point in the chess game. Let's just say it's black's turn, and in order to get out of check, he moves his king. Uh-oh. Masters know that is not a great move because you are never allowed to castle for the rest of the game once your king has made a move. Even if your king travels back to the starting square, make one more move for white, and one more move for black. On black's next turn, he's not allowed to castle. I know the king is on the starting square, but once you have moved your king, you are not allowed to castle for the entire rest of the game. So make sure you have a good memory, chess kids, because you want to be able to remember whether or not the king has made a move. Okay, the fourth reason you can't castle is if your rook has moved. Let's pretend that it's white's turn, and white moves the rook. I've got some bad news. Once you move a rook, you cannot castle anymore with that rook. Now if white had another rook on the chessboard, if this rook were to fly all the way down the board and land on the square, let's say a1, if white moves this rook, he could still castle on the next turn using the other rook that would be allowed, okay? So moving a rook is not quite as bad as moving the king because you could still castle with your other rook. However, your options for castling have gone way down. Now think about it. Is it possible to castle more than once in a chess game? Well, no, it's not. Because once you castle, you have already moved your king and your rook. And the rules of chess say you can't castle once your king or rook has moved. So castling twice in a chess game wouldn't be possible. It'd be pretty funny if you could, but you can't. Okay, we've got one more time in chess where castling is not allowed. You're not allowed to castle if your king moves through or lands in check. Let's give white a new chess piece and let's put this bishop over here on this square, g5, okay? And let's give white a move. We'll have him castle. It's black's turn. Big question. Can black castle? Well, the answer is no. Notice if you try to castle, your king actually travels through the square d8 to get to c8. Do you see a piece aiming at the square d8? Yeah, it's that new bishop I just put on the chessboard. And that bishop is aiming at the square d8. In chess, you can't move your king through an attacked square in order to castle. That's called castling through check and it's not allowed. I don't know why we have a word for something that's not allowed, but we do. You also can't castle if your king is landing in check. So let's go back to our starting position and let's put white's bishop on the square d3 this time. If white's bishop travels to the square f5, again, black cannot castle because if he does, his king would actually be landing in check. And remember, in chess, you're never allowed to put your own king in check whether you're castling or doing any other chess move. There's one final position that can be a little bit tricky to beginner chess players. This time, we're going to put the bishop on this square. Notice the bishop is traveling diagonal and aiming at the square b8. Now, I have a question for you. If black tries to castle, is the king using the square b8? Is he traveling through it? Nope, he actually isn't. So castling is allowed for black. Let me go ahead and give white a castle and let's have black castle just to show you one, two, and the rook jumps over. There was actually a chess game where even a grandmaster didn't know that rule. Okay, so let's review what castling is and the five times in chess where it is not allowed. When you're castling, your king always moves two squares and your rook jumps over the king. The king moves one, two, and the rook jumps over the king. Even if you're castling to the queen side, you always move your king two squares. The five times in chess that you are not allowed to castle, if you have a piece in the way, if you are in check, if you have moved your king, if you have moved the rook that you are using to castle, or if your king travels through or lands in check. I'm sort of combining those both into the same rule. Okay, boys and girls, I want you to try to castle in every single chess game, but remember all of those times you're not allowed to. My advice? If you castle really early on, you won't have to worry about most of those five rules and your king will be in a much safer place.