What Castling is for Chess Players

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Ken and I am here today to talk to you about playing Chess. Now we've talked about different openings, we've talked about the Chess is really divided into 3 parts; the opening pieces where you are opening all the pieces up, the middle part of the game and the end part of the game. So we are still talking a bout the beginning of the game and after the pieces are all developed, a very important concept is the concept of the castle. Now let's just say I've opened up the game, I've got my pieces out where I am supposed to, I've got the King's opening here, I've this Bishop out here and this Knight out here and I move my Queen. Now I have two choices when I castle. By moving the King over here, that is castle #1 and that is one of the most protected positions for castles but sometimes the opponent will build up on this side and in that case I would probably castle to the Queen's side, which is moving the Bishop over, the King over 2 spaces and putting the Rook or castle on this side. This is not as desirable because these Pawns here are more vulnerable. So most of the time people will castle to the King's side which is moving the King all the way down to the Rook and putting the Rook on the other side of it. The opposite is castling on the Queen's side. Once again, all the spaces must be open, moving the King over 2 spaces and then moving the Rook over again on the side. What is the purpose of castling? The purpose of castling is to protect the King. Why are we protecting our King? Because when you capture the King, the opponent captures the King by putting the King in check and ultimately checkmate, the game is over. By putting the King in either the Queen's position in a castle or in the King's position, once again you are maximizing a defensive position for the clean. Thank you."