Some special moves in Chess like the “en passant” capture rarely appears in real games, but you must be prepared to play it. A much much more common move is castling. It is a way to bring your King in a safe place in a minimum number of moves.
Basically, in only one move, your King will move 2 squares towards one of your Rooks, while that Rook jumps above the King, to land on the next square.
The are 2 types of castling, castling long and castling short, that will be detailed in the next examples.
Castling Long And Castling Short
Both castling long and short are easy to do. However, there are several conditions that must be fulfilled to be allowed to castle:
- the King has not previously moved
- the Rook chosen has not previously moved
- there are no pieces between the King and the chosen Rook
- the King is not in check
- the King does not pass through a square that is controlled by enemy pieces
- the King does not end up in check
If one condition is not met, castling is not allowed. Let’s detail all these rules in the following paragraphs.
Rule 1: the King has not previously moved.
Rule 2: the Rook chosen has not previously moved.
Rule 3: there are no pieces between the King and the chosen Rook.
Rule 4: the King is not in check.
Rule 5: the King does not pass through a square that is controlled by enemy pieces
Rule 6: the King does not end up in check.
Test your knowledge
A Conclusion On Castling
You should be comfortable with castling now, as well with all the conditions that allow (or not) to castle. If not, go through the quizzes again until you make no mistake. Maybe one day, this move will not exist any more but we are not there yet :).
If you are reading my articles one after another, the last move you do not know yet is the promotion of the pawn. Once done, you will know all the moves a Chess piece can make.
