The Everything Chess Basics Book (15 page)

Castling is the newest move in chess. It has been standardized only within the last 150 years. Before that there were many ways to castle, including the king and rook actually trading places or using it as two separate moves, with the king moving first and the rook jumping over him the next move.

That last restriction is a little tricky. It means that the king can’t pass over any square that is directly under control of an enemy piece. For example, a White king on e1 and a White rook on h1 are ready to castle, as long as neither has moved and the king is not in check and the f1-and g1-squares are empty. But if there is a Black bishop on d3, which controls the f1-square, castling is not possible.

White cannot castle because the king would wind up on g1, in check from the b6-bishop.

White cannot castle because the f1-square he must pass over is controlled by the d3-bishop.

White cannot castle because the king is in check from the Black queen along the e-file.

Kingside and Queenside

There are two types of castling, depending on which direction you decide to castle. In kingside castling the White king goes to g1 while the White h1-rook goes to f1. (The Black king goes to g8 while the Black h8-rook goes to f8.) The kingside is simply the half of the board where the kings start out. Thus kingside refers to the e-, f-, g-, and h-files.

In queenside castling, the king goes in the other direction. The queenside is that half of the board where the queens start out. Thus queenside refers to the d-, c-, b-, and a-files. The White king goes to c1 and the White rook on a1 goes to d1. (The Black king goes to c8 while the Black rook on a8 goes to d8.)

Black’s king and a8-rook have not moved. There is nothing in between the two except empty squares.

Black has moved the king two squares to the left along the eighth rank and jumped the rook over the king to its other side. Queenside castling is completed.

The restrictions about castling out of, into, and through check apply only to the king. If your rook is under attack from an enemy piece but your king is safe on its starting square, the square it passes over in the process of castling, and the square it lands on, castling is legal.

White’s king and rook have not moved and there is nothing but empty squares between the two.

White has completed castling. The rook was under attack, but that’s not relevant to castling.

The enemy can also cover the extra square the rook passes over in queenside castling during castling.

The White rook covers the b8-square, but this is not relevant when castling comes into play.

Black has successfully castled. The b8-square doesn’t involve the king, so its situation is not relevant.

You will notice that in queenside castling there is an extra file to take into account. The king always moves two squares to the side when castling, so it is the rook that has to travel farther in queenside castling.

A particularly important restriction to castling is that it can only be played once in a game by either player. This is inherent in the castling rules, since castling cannot take place unless the king and the rook he castles with are unmoved. Thus once you castle, that condition can no longer be met for the rest of the game.

The Clock

We’ve covered all the special moves in chess as long as you don’t consider the chess clock. But clocks are often used to time games, whether in tournaments or in clubs or just to make a game go fast in a friendly game in somebody’s home, in a park, or on the Internet.

A chess clock is really two clocks in one housing. When you make a move, press the button on your clock and your clock will stop ticking while your opponent’s clock will begin ticking. When your opponent makes his move, your clock will start ticking while his clock stops ticking.

That way the entire game can be timed, with each player only being charged for the time it takes to come up with her move. Chess clocks come in two types. A digital chess clock (sometimes referred to as
allegro
) is one that displays the exact number of minutes and seconds available for each player. When a player runs out of time using a digital clock, the display will read 00:00. A mechanical clock (sometimes referred to as
analog
) is one with the traditional clock face and hands. A mechanical clock also has a device called a
flag
that signals when a player’s time has expired. When a player runs short of time using a mechanical clock, the hands of the clock will begin to raise the player’s flag. When time expires, the player’s flag falls.