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I'm a chess beginner, and I was wondering: why was this movement introduced to chess, and why is it important to the game?

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@down voter, please justify your vote. On private beta is very very important to know why a question isn't good. – bigown Oct 19 '10 at 22:43
He might be referring to the fact that the piece isn't called the Castle, it's called the rook (regardless of whether Ron Weasley called it that, it's not correct) – McKay Oct 20 '10 at 17:15
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@McKay: In that case he should learn to post a comment about the problem or edit when he have enough rep to do. Down vote is to bad question. – bigown Oct 20 '10 at 17:26
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I concur. – McKay Oct 20 '10 at 17:33

4 Answers

up vote 20 down vote accepted

It's called castling. It's important because it gets your king out of danger (the centre is not safe), while simultaneously moving your 'tower' (also called a Castle, or a Rook) into the centre, where it is much more useful.

See this related question: Is castling still done in the openings in modern chess?

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I'm certainly not a chess expert, but I think that "Castle" nowadays refers exclusively to the move, not the piece. – Andrew Vandever Jan 12 '11 at 2:53
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@Andrew Vandever - you're certainly right that it's an outdated name, but it's still common to hear it used informally. See e.g. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_%28chess%29. – ire_and_curses♦ Jan 12 '11 at 23:20
@andrew in english maybe. In other languages it's still roughly the name. In Dutch and German for example the piece is called (translated to English) the "Tower". – jwenting Apr 18 '11 at 8:44
up vote 5 down vote

This is called "castling". The Wikipedia article has information about the origins of the move.

The move is important to build a fortress for your king, and to free the rook for attacking the enemy king.

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up vote 4 down vote

The name of the move is castling.

The history of the move is explained well on the wikipedia page.

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up vote 2 down vote

The main advantage is that you move 2 at the same time. It's important to note that the 2 castlings are not the same. The long one is more aggressive and if you do it right, you get your rook in line with your queen.

Traditionally, taking the center should be an objective. Castling enables this.

I don't consider myself a strong player, but in my experience, Castling is best used for positioning rather as a defense for your King. Remember, you need to have the Initiative...

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