Artificial castling
Encyclopedia
In chess
, artificial castling (also called castling by hand) refers to a maneuver in which a king
which has lost the right to castle
, achieves a castled position in several normal moves, instead of the one special move.
After the following common sequence of moves:
White sees that if he recaptures with 5.Nxe4, Black responds with 5...d5, forking knight and bishop and winning back the piece. In that case, Black has not won material, but has destroyed White's center. Instead of allowing d5, White hopes to cause trouble for Black by returning the piece while depriving him of the right to castle. However, Black can easily castle artificially, for example:
White castles "naturally".
Black begins castling artificially.
Black has achieved a normal castled position (Rf8, Kg8), but in several moves. The absence of any pawns in the center indicates that king safety is of particular importance in this position. Black's development lags slightly, but he also possesses the bishop pair and a queenside pawn
majority, so his position is at least equal.
In an even more common opening
(a main line of the Benko Gambit
, ECO
A59), White uses the g2-square in an artificial castle maneuver to safeguard his king after an exchange of bishops on f1 precludes castling normally:
The following game between Jonathan Mestel
and Sergey Makarichev played in Hastings
1979 features yet another way to artificially castle:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.0-0 Nxc3 6.dxc3 h6 7.Qd5 Qf6 8.Re1 Bd6 9.Nxe5 Bxe5 10.f4 d6 11.fxe5 dxe5 12.Bb5 Bd7 13.Bxc6 Bxc6 14.Rxe5+ Kf8 15.Qc5+ Kg8 16.Re2 Rd8 17.Be3 Kh7 (see diagram) The king has finally reached a safe haven and now Black takes over the initiative. 18.Qxa7? Rhe8 19.Rf2 Qg6 20.h3 Re4! 21.Bd4 Rd5! 22.Rd1 Rg5 23.Kf1 Re6 24.g4 Bb5+ 25.Kg1 Rxg4+! 26.Kh2 Rg3 27.Rdd2 Rxh3+! 28.Kxh3 Qh5+
A unique and even humorous artificial castling took place in the game Heidenfeld–Hecht, played in the Nice
Chess Olympiad
1974:
1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e5 Ne4 4.d4 Nxc3 5.bxc3 e6 6.Bd3 c5 7.f4 Nc6 8.Nf3 Qa5 9.Bd2 Qa4! 10.Be3 c4 11.Be2 Ba3 12.Bc1? Qa5 (see diagram) White's queenside pawns were under heavy pressure, and "usual" moves such as 13.Bd2? Bb2, 13.Bxa3 Qxc3+! or 13.Qd2 Bxc1 would have all led to a loss of a pawn. So, White came up with the following unusual maneuver: 13.Kd2! Be7 14.Qe1 Bd7 15.Ke3 Now that the queen guards c3, the king can continue his journey to safety. 15...f6 16.Rf1 fxe5 17.fxe5 0-0 18.Kf2 Be8! 19.Kg1 White has "castled" in five moves instead of the usual one, but maintained material equality (although after 19...Bg6, Black was still better, and eventually won).
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, artificial castling (also called castling by hand) refers to a maneuver in which a king
King (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
which has lost the right to castle
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
, achieves a castled position in several normal moves, instead of the one special move.
Examples
After the following common sequence of moves:
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nxe4 5. Bxf7+?! (first diagram)
White sees that if he recaptures with 5.Nxe4, Black responds with 5...d5, forking knight and bishop and winning back the piece. In that case, Black has not won material, but has destroyed White's center. Instead of allowing d5, White hopes to cause trouble for Black by returning the piece while depriving him of the right to castle. However, Black can easily castle artificially, for example:
- 5... Kxf7 6. Nxe4 Be7 7. 0-0
White castles "naturally".
- 7... Rf8
Black begins castling artificially.
- 8. d4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Kg8 (second diagram)
Black has achieved a normal castled position (Rf8, Kg8), but in several moves. The absence of any pawns in the center indicates that king safety is of particular importance in this position. Black's development lags slightly, but he also possesses the bishop pair and a queenside pawn
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
majority, so his position is at least equal.
In an even more common opening
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
(a main line of the Benko Gambit
Benko Gambit
The Benko Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the move 3...b5 in the Benoni Defense arising after:- Origin and predecessors :The idea of sacrificing a pawn with ...b5 and ...a6 is quite old. Karel Opočenský applied the idea against, among others, Gideon Ståhlberg at Poděbrady 1936, Paul...
, ECO
Eco
- Eco may refer to :* eco-, a prefix mostly relating to ecological or environmental terms* .eco, , a proposed top-level domain for the Internet* Eco , a proposed currency* Eco , a computer simulation game...
A59), White uses the g2-square in an artificial castle maneuver to safeguard his king after an exchange of bishops on f1 precludes castling normally:
- 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 Bxa6 6. Nc3 d6 7. e4 Bxf1 8. Kxf1 (first diagram) 8... g6 9. g3 Bg7 10. Kg2 0-0 11. Nf3 Nbd7 (second diagram). White has completed the artificial castle maneuver of his king and is ready to continue with 12. Re1 (or other moves).
Praxis
The following game between Jonathan Mestel
Jonathan Mestel
Andrew Jonathan Mestel is Professor of applied mathematics at Imperial College London who works on magnetohydrodynamics and biological fluid dynamics...
and Sergey Makarichev played in Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
1979 features yet another way to artificially castle:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.0-0 Nxc3 6.dxc3 h6 7.Qd5 Qf6 8.Re1 Bd6 9.Nxe5 Bxe5 10.f4 d6 11.fxe5 dxe5 12.Bb5 Bd7 13.Bxc6 Bxc6 14.Rxe5+ Kf8 15.Qc5+ Kg8 16.Re2 Rd8 17.Be3 Kh7 (see diagram) The king has finally reached a safe haven and now Black takes over the initiative. 18.Qxa7? Rhe8 19.Rf2 Qg6 20.h3 Re4! 21.Bd4 Rd5! 22.Rd1 Rg5 23.Kf1 Re6 24.g4 Bb5+ 25.Kg1 Rxg4+! 26.Kh2 Rg3 27.Rdd2 Rxh3+! 28.Kxh3 Qh5+
A unique and even humorous artificial castling took place in the game Heidenfeld–Hecht, played in the Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
1974:
1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e5 Ne4 4.d4 Nxc3 5.bxc3 e6 6.Bd3 c5 7.f4 Nc6 8.Nf3 Qa5 9.Bd2 Qa4! 10.Be3 c4 11.Be2 Ba3 12.Bc1? Qa5 (see diagram) White's queenside pawns were under heavy pressure, and "usual" moves such as 13.Bd2? Bb2, 13.Bxa3 Qxc3+! or 13.Qd2 Bxc1 would have all led to a loss of a pawn. So, White came up with the following unusual maneuver: 13.Kd2! Be7 14.Qe1 Bd7 15.Ke3 Now that the queen guards c3, the king can continue his journey to safety. 15...f6 16.Rf1 fxe5 17.fxe5 0-0 18.Kf2 Be8! 19.Kg1 White has "castled" in five moves instead of the usual one, but maintained material equality (although after 19...Bg6, Black was still better, and eventually won).