Castling Early

[AdminX]

Should You Castle Early?

Question: Chess.com member scmooney asked, “You stress castling early. In my experience I find that sometimes castling takes the king right into an ambush. In your lecture on attacking a castled king, Black’s castle is being invaded by White and meanwhile White’s king is still sitting in the middle! The one who castled was torn apart by the one who did not. I have read somewhere that the old principle: ‘castle early’ has been updated to: ‘prepare to castle early.’ Like everything else in chess, it seems that whether or not to castle, or when, must be assessed based on the dictates of the particular position. Would you agree? Or is there something more about castling that I need to learn?”

https://www.chess.com/article/view/cast ... les_silman

[Henk]

If you castle with a fianchetto then king is safe according to Igor Smirnov.
He also says in that case it is useless to attack the king for it costs to many tempi. But in his videos he doesn't explain what to do if an enemy pawn gets on f5. I remember I lost a game that way.

[Terry McCracken]

It's usually a good idea, unless you're Steinitz!

[Terry McCracken]

If you castle with a fianchetto then king is safe according to Igor Smirnov.
He also says in that case it is useless to attack the king for it costs to many tempi. But in his videos he doesn't explain what to do if an enemy pawn gets on f5. I remember I lost a game that way.

Does he talk about h5? It's similar.

[Henk]

Yes after h5 and hg6: you should take back with h-pawn. And he still says king is safe if it can escape to f8.

[Terry McCracken]

Yes after h5 and hg6: you should take back with h-pawn. And he still says king is safe if it can escape to f8.

If you can get out of a direct mating attack, then it should be. Kf8 is good.