Marble Chess Board's Blog: Impossible Chess Castling Moves

Marble Chess Board

There are times when you may use the castling move and other times that you may not.

Temporary castling moves are moves where you may not be able to Castle at one particular time, but may in another move. Here's some conditions for Castling.

Temporary

1. There has to be open spaces between the King and the Rook that you want to castle. It can be the King's side Rook or the Queen's side Rook.
2. You can not castle if the King is in check.
3. A King cannot pass over a square that is occupied by the opposition.

Temporarily Impossible: the castling may be available later in the game. The spaces have to be open between the King and the Rook to be castled. None of your chess pieces or your opponent chess pieces can in between the King and the Rook.

Also, keep in mind, as my son just suggested, that if the square that the King will travel over is being guarded by an opponent chess piece, you will not be able to castle with that Rook at that time.

The King moved before castling

Permanently Impossible: There are certain conditions that do not permit castling to be done at all during the chess game. These are the conditions:

1. If the King has already moved once, the castling move may never not be done in that game.
2. If the Rook that you want to castle with has moved, you can not use that Rook to castle at any time during this game.

The Kings Rook has moved
before castling

In summary: if one Rook has not moved during the game, you can use that Rook to castle, if there are open squares between that Rook and the King, and if the squares are not being guarded.