Can i castle to get out of check

Just like how a goal keeper in football can handle the ball in his penalty area but not if it was back-passed to him by one of his own players , so the rule of castling is there to ensure that you get a defensive edge, but not for free. You have to work it into your strategy. I just posted an answer to this question How did castling originate? Historically castling was probably two moves the rook move and the king's leap , that were merged into a double move, because they basically always followed directly one after the other.

Just like the double move of the pawns. And just like you cannot escape capture from an enemy pawn, by just moving past it, you cannot escape check by just castling: In both cases the "double move" is dissected into the two original moves - the pawn can be taken en passant and the king could still be taken after the rook move, making castling illegal.

Because that would be cheating. Well, to be fair, the reason is to make it reasonable that when all of the squares surrounding a king and the square it stands on are attacked by the opponent , the defender cannot simply warp away and out of trouble, while simultaneously delivering a new defender in the fray.

The move would simply be too powerful. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why is castling through and out of check prohibited? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 10 months ago. Active 2 years, 8 months ago. Viewed 31k times. But if you read the rules properly you will never struggle. Now, I already wrote a post in which I thoroughly explained, when should you castle, when not, should you castle early, the perfect time to castle.

I recommend you to also see that post. Also, you may think, can you castle when your rook is threatened? And the answer is yes. In fact, in that article, I mentioned the two professional chess games in which this happened.

Definitely check that article because many of your other doubts will be cleared. Here is an example to demonstrate castling under check. All the cases numbers are marked in the image for easy reference. As you can see in the image if the white king wants to castle then it will g1 square. So, can you castle through check? No, it is illegal to move your king to a square that is under attack. In this case if the white king wants to castle then as usual it has to move and occupy the g1 square, but wait!

So, can you castle into check? One thing that you should be aware of is that castling is considered to be a king move. Note, however, that most official tournament rules are much more forgiving than this and if you were to touch the rook first, you would still be allowed to complete the move. There is also a rule that requires you to complete the entire move only using the same hand to touch each piece. So, how many times can you castle in chess? You can only castle one time in a game.

This is because the act of castling moves both the king and the rook and if the king has moved, it may not castle. This is why they always tell the new player, castle early! We should be able to castle while in and through check. Castling is one move, not multiple, so why does the square we pass over count? Castling requires lots of planning and preparation. The logistics of moving two pieces at once is quite complicated.

If the enemy is at your throat, implementing this action is far too difficult to successfully set in motion. I think the real reason is that castling came in after checking. Similarly to the double pawn move Similarly, en passant exists as a nod to the original rules where pawns could only move a single square.

I play on both sites chess. Both allow castling even if squares between rook and king are attacked! Forums General Chess Discussion. Mar 22, 1. Mar 22, 2. I personally believe that this rule is meant to "balance" the castling move. Just my two cents.