I've been berated by Dan Heisman many a time for not castling early enough in a game. In addition to your arguments, another one he uses goes like this (makes a ton of sense!):
Look at the engine at your game around moves 4, 5, 6, and 7. Castling is almost always either the top move or in the top 3 (unless, obviously, there is a tactic). So, if you're an amateur, why not play a move that's (almost) guaranteed to be in the top three (which is plenty good enough for openings), instead of gambling that you aren't outsmarting yourself (which also uses up time better spent during the middle game) and that you might be playing a move that's not in the top 3?
Nate I started following you for the excellent and thoughtful writing on interesting topics in which you invariably extract instructional value. Here you take excellent but common instructive advice and find thoughtful things to say about it that will help me keep it front of mind. Thank you!
This: “Many novice players imagine that getting to a high level involves adopting a sort of bizarro chess, where all the usual rules are reversed, but more often it’s just doing the normal stuff with more precision.” Great piece, as always. Among chess writers, Purdy might be an exception. Whatever he writes seems to point to the usually correct principles, not to the weird anomalies.
Fantastic idea here, I never thought of castling as an OP type move, but in truth it is, especially if used incorrectly. I think on the otherhand castling like any other move could be a mistake or a blunder in some situations ofcourse. For lower rated players it seems castling is always an early priority in the game, while for more advanced players it can be delayed in order to not induce an early attack by your opponent. Once they know where your king is going they know where to attack and move their pieces accordingly.
The idea of "castling tells them where to attack" is real, but I'd say overrated. There are positions where this is true, but they are definitely a minority.
ideas that is good to keep in mind for beginners, as well as to just castle as early as possible, since for lower level players looking to improve, leaving your king in the center is often fatal.
There is another quote in chess and I guess it can apply to other games, "Don't show your trumps too soon". I remember 1st. game of the 2018 WC match Caruana-Carlsen, Caruana went for the attack opening the f file
and when he had all his resources pointing towards that direction Magnus 0-0-0 and suddenly white was throwing punches at the air.
So I am member of the don't show your trumps too soon and in your ex. Bf5 followed by Nbd7 and Qc7 opening the option of castling Qside is fine for me
This is the whole point of the example though! In this position it's actually MORE flexible to castle immediately, because flexibility with developing the queenside pieces is more important than flexibility with the king.
Yes you are right, but I recently saw one of these horrid online rapid games, Firouzja-Ergaisi playing the Italian. And Alireza had deployed a nice Qside development with a battery if Bishop pair included while Erigaisi just focused on attacking wKing and he prevailed.
I think it depends on the character of the position and wise judgement if it's better not showing your cards early or just put your King on safety, but not make a religion and a doctrine of which is better.
I think our point of agreement is that casting is a nice multipropse move and Kramniks suggestion about non-castling isn't welcomed ;)
"Castle if you must, or because you want to, but not because you can" - I've seen that attributed to Harry N. Pillsbury.
If you eliminate castling then you are essentially eliminating chess as it has been known for the past few hundred years and disconnecting it from the current game's history.
I don't see why adjusting the rules would eliminate chess. Most sports adjust their rules from time to time. History doesn't disappear, it's still there.
Good stuff, Nate!
I've been berated by Dan Heisman many a time for not castling early enough in a game. In addition to your arguments, another one he uses goes like this (makes a ton of sense!):
Look at the engine at your game around moves 4, 5, 6, and 7. Castling is almost always either the top move or in the top 3 (unless, obviously, there is a tactic). So, if you're an amateur, why not play a move that's (almost) guaranteed to be in the top three (which is plenty good enough for openings), instead of gambling that you aren't outsmarting yourself (which also uses up time better spent during the middle game) and that you might be playing a move that's not in the top 3?
Yeah I really like Dan's point about the top 3 moves.
Nate I started following you for the excellent and thoughtful writing on interesting topics in which you invariably extract instructional value. Here you take excellent but common instructive advice and find thoughtful things to say about it that will help me keep it front of mind. Thank you!
This: “Many novice players imagine that getting to a high level involves adopting a sort of bizarro chess, where all the usual rules are reversed, but more often it’s just doing the normal stuff with more precision.” Great piece, as always. Among chess writers, Purdy might be an exception. Whatever he writes seems to point to the usually correct principles, not to the weird anomalies.
Fantastic idea here, I never thought of castling as an OP type move, but in truth it is, especially if used incorrectly. I think on the otherhand castling like any other move could be a mistake or a blunder in some situations ofcourse. For lower rated players it seems castling is always an early priority in the game, while for more advanced players it can be delayed in order to not induce an early attack by your opponent. Once they know where your king is going they know where to attack and move their pieces accordingly.
The idea of "castling tells them where to attack" is real, but I'd say overrated. There are positions where this is true, but they are definitely a minority.
100% factual, just one of those overall
ideas that is good to keep in mind for beginners, as well as to just castle as early as possible, since for lower level players looking to improve, leaving your king in the center is often fatal.
*Meant to say in the first sentence correctly not incorrectly.
There is another quote in chess and I guess it can apply to other games, "Don't show your trumps too soon". I remember 1st. game of the 2018 WC match Caruana-Carlsen, Caruana went for the attack opening the f file
and when he had all his resources pointing towards that direction Magnus 0-0-0 and suddenly white was throwing punches at the air.
So I am member of the don't show your trumps too soon and in your ex. Bf5 followed by Nbd7 and Qc7 opening the option of castling Qside is fine for me
Thanks for another great article;)
This is the whole point of the example though! In this position it's actually MORE flexible to castle immediately, because flexibility with developing the queenside pieces is more important than flexibility with the king.
Yes you are right, but I recently saw one of these horrid online rapid games, Firouzja-Ergaisi playing the Italian. And Alireza had deployed a nice Qside development with a battery if Bishop pair included while Erigaisi just focused on attacking wKing and he prevailed.
I think it depends on the character of the position and wise judgement if it's better not showing your cards early or just put your King on safety, but not make a religion and a doctrine of which is better.
I think our point of agreement is that casting is a nice multipropse move and Kramniks suggestion about non-castling isn't welcomed ;)
"Castle if you must, or because you want to, but not because you can" - I've seen that attributed to Harry N. Pillsbury.
If you eliminate castling then you are essentially eliminating chess as it has been known for the past few hundred years and disconnecting it from the current game's history.
I don't see why adjusting the rules would eliminate chess. Most sports adjust their rules from time to time. History doesn't disappear, it's still there.