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  • Lesson 10 of 32
  • Special moves
  • 3 min

How to Castle in Chess: Kingside and Queenside

Castling is the only move in chess where two of your pieces move at once. It tucks the king into a corner and brings a rook into the game, which is why strong players castle in almost every game.

Step 1 of 4

  1. Watch it happen

    To castle, the king moves two squares towards a rook, and that rook jumps over the king to the square next to it. Watch White castle on the kingside: the king goes from e1 to g1, and the rook from h1 to f1.

  2. Castle kingside

    To castle on a board, move the king two squares towards the rook. The rook follows by itself.

    Your move

    Castle kingside.

  3. Castle queenside

    Castling works on the other side too. The king still moves two squares, to c1, and the rook from a1 jumps over it to d1. This is called queenside castling.

    Your move

    Castle queenside.

  4. When you can't castle

    Castling is only allowed if neither the king nor that rook has moved yet, and no pieces stand between them. And the king may not castle out of check, through check or into check. Here the black bishop on c4 attacks f1, the square the king would pass over, so White cannot castle kingside until that changes.

What you learned

  • To castle, move the king two squares towards a rook; the rook jumps to the other side of the king.
  • Kingside castling puts the king on g1 (or g8); queenside castling puts it on c1 (or c8).
  • You can't castle if the king or rook has moved, if pieces are in the way, or if the king is in check, would pass through check or would land in check.

In this course

Unit 1The pieces

  1. The Chessboard and How to Set Up the Pieces
  2. How the Rook Moves in Chess
  3. How the Bishop Moves in Chess
  4. How the Queen Moves in Chess
  5. How the King Moves in Chess
  6. How the Knight Moves in Chess
  7. How Pawns Move and Capture in Chess
  8. Chess Piece Values: What Each Piece Is Worth

Unit 2Special moves

  1. What Is Check in Chess, and How to Get Out of It
  2. How to Castle in Chess: Kingside and Queenside
  3. En Passant in Chess, Explained on the Board
  4. Pawn Promotion in Chess: Turning a Pawn Into a Queen

Unit 3Winning the game

  1. What Is Checkmate? Learn to Mate in One
  2. Stalemate in Chess: Why It's a Draw
  3. How to Checkmate With a King and Queen

Unit 4Your first tactics

  1. The Fork: Attack Two Pieces at Once
  2. The Pin in Chess: Freeze a Piece in Place
  3. The Skewer in Chess: Attack Through a Piece

Unit 5Checkmate patterns

  1. Back-Rank Mate in Chess: Spot It and Stop It
  2. Smothered Mate in Chess: The Knight's Checkmate
  3. The Ladder Mate: Checkmate With Two Rooks
  4. How to Checkmate With a King and Rook

Unit 6More tactics

  1. Discovered Attack in Chess: Unmask a Hidden Attacker
  2. Double Check in Chess: Two Checks at Once
  3. Removing the Defender in Chess: Take the Guard

Unit 7Opening principles

  1. Control the Centre: A Chess Opening Principle
  2. How to Develop Your Pieces in the Chess Opening
  3. Scholar's Mate: How It Works and How to Stop It
  4. Fool's Mate: The Fastest Checkmate in Chess

Unit 8Endgame basics

  1. The Rule of the Square in Chess Endgames
  2. The Opposition in Chess: King Endgame Basics
  3. King and Pawn vs King: How to Win the Ending

Lessons for every game

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