castling
Enable an agent to recognise a proposed castling move, establish its legality under the applicable chess rules, and assess its execution and positional consequences.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise a proposed castling move, establish its legality under the applicable chess rules, and assess its execution and positional consequences.
Castling is a special chess move counted as a single king move in which the king and one rook are repositioned together, subject to restrictions on their prior movement, intervening pieces, and attacks on the king's starting, transit, and destination squares.
It can be Identify a candidate castling move and its participating pieces.; Reconstruct or flag uncertainty about castling rights.; Check current legality and explain each failed or unresolved condition.; Apply a legal castling transition and update the associated rights.; Interpret or produce a castling record using a specified notation or interface.; Compare immediate consequences of castling with available alternatives..
Distinguishing features
The action is evaluated as one castling move involving a king and a designated rook, rather than two independent ordinary moves.
Eligibility depends on retained castling rights as well as the current board position; matching piece locations alone cannot establish permission.
The applicable rules impose castling-specific occupancy and king-safety conditions beyond ordinary destination-square legality.
The ruleset determines the king and rook destinations; Chess960 requires recognition even when the arrangement differs from standard chess.
A strategically desirable king relocation is not castling unless the move satisfies the applicable castling definition and conditions.
Scope
+ Identification of the king, designated rook and castling side
+ Applicable ruleset and variant-specific castling interpretation
+ Historical castling rights and present move legality
+ Piece relocation, move recording and resulting position
+ Immediate king-safety and rook-activation consequences
- Complete rules and state model for a chess game
- General king and rook movement outside castling
- Comprehensive opening theory and long-term position evaluation
- Tournament administration and general dispute procedures
- Unrelated senses of castles, fortification or defensive organisation
Characteristics
- Applicable castling rules
- Governing rules document, edition and chess variant Determines which eligibility, relocation and execution conditions apply.
- Acting side
- White or Black Identifies the player, king and associated castling rights being evaluated.
- Castling side
- Kingside or queenside, with an explicit variant-specific interpretation Selects the designated rook and intended final arrangement.
- Designated king and rook
- References to the participating pieces and their starting squares Prevents rights from being attributed to an unrelated rook or inferred solely from occupancy.
- Historical castling right
- Retained, lost or unknown for each side of castling Separates historical eligibility from temporary obstacles to the move.
- Relocation arrangement
- King origin and destination; rook origin and destination Makes the proposed transition explicit, including unusual Chess960 arrangements.
- Present legality
- Legal, illegal or undetermined, with condition-specific reasons Supports a justified decision about whether castling may occur now.
- Execution status
- Proposed, initiated, completed, rejected or disputed Distinguishes an intended move from an accepted change to the game.
- Positional consequence assessment
- Favourable, neutral, unfavourable or unresolved, with evaluation basis Keeps strategic judgement separate from legal permission.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 29 questions.
Castling identity and rules Establishes which chess action is being considered and which authority defines it.
A castling decision is meaningful only relative to an identified variant and governing rule interpretation.
Action recognition
Distinguishes castling from ordinary piece movement and ambiguous move input.
Candidate castling action
Record the acting player, intended castling side and evidence that the action is intended as castling.
- What identifies this proposal as castling rather than an ordinary king or rook move? definition
- Which player and castling side does the proposal specify? boundary
Governing rules
Anchors the interpretation to a ruleset and variant.
Variant and authority
Record the rule source that governs eligibility, destinations and move execution.
- Is this standard chess, Chess960 or another variant with its own castling provisions? definition
- Which rules document and edition support the castling interpretation being applied? provenance
Historical castling rights Tracks whether the player retains the right to castle with the designated rook.
The visible arrangement of pieces does not by itself establish castling rights.
Piece history
Connects the participating pieces to relevant prior moves and initial placement.
King and rook eligibility
Record the designated pieces and the historical evidence needed to establish their eligibility.
- Which rook is associated with this castling right in the game's initial arrangement? definition
- What move history establishes whether the king or designated rook has lost eligibility? provenance
Rights evidence
Separates verified rights from rights asserted by an incomplete or imported position.
Retained, lost or unknown
Record rights independently for each castling side, together with evidence gaps or contradictions.
- What supports the recorded right: complete game history, supplied position metadata or an explicit assumption? provenance
- If supplied rights conflict with piece placement or move history, what must be resolved before accepting castling? action
Position-dependent legality Determines whether retained rights can be exercised in the present position.
A player may retain a castling right while occupancy or king-safety conditions temporarily prevent its use.
Relocation and occupancy
Identifies the required final arrangement and squares whose occupancy matters.
Required squares
Record both piece transitions and the variant-specific clearance conditions.
- What are the king's and rook's origin and destination squares for this castling side? measurement
- Which squares must be vacant, and how does the ruleset handle participating pieces already occupying relevant squares? boundary
King-safety conditions
Evaluates attacks relevant to castling permission.
Attacked-square evaluation
Record the attack checks required for the king and the board arrangements used to evaluate them.
- Which king squares must be checked for attack, and under which board arrangement is each check evaluated? measurement
- How does the governing rule define an attacked square when the attacking piece is constrained by its own king's safety? definition
- Which king-safety condition fails or remains unresolved for this candidate? action
Execution and game record Connects an accepted castling decision to its physical or digital execution and resulting game state.
Correct recognition and legality checking must produce an unambiguous, correctly recorded move.
Move execution
Interprets how the player initiates and completes castling in the relevant playing environment.
Castling input and completion
Record the execution convention and distinguish intention from completion.
- How must the player express castling on this physical board or digital interface? action
- What establishes that the move is completed, and how is an ambiguous king-rook interaction resolved? boundary
Resulting state and notation
Preserves the resulting placement, rights changes and castling identity in the game record.
Accepted castling transition
Record the accepted move as a coherent game-state transition with a specified representation.
- Do the resulting piece locations and castling-right updates match the accepted move? measurement
- Which notation or protocol records this castling move unambiguously, particularly in Chess960? action
Castling consequences and choice Assesses whether an available castling move serves the player's immediate positional needs.
Legal castling is an option to evaluate, not sufficient evidence of improved king safety or a stronger position.
King and rook consequences
Examines the direct effects of relocating the two participating pieces.
Safety and activity change
Record concrete changes in king exposure, pawn shelter and rook access after castling.
- Which attacking lines, pawn-cover features or immediate threats change around the king after castling? measurement
- Which files, ranks or tactical interactions become available or unavailable to the relocated rook? measurement
Timing and alternatives
Compares castling now with delaying it or choosing another legal move.
Castling choice basis
Record the concrete alternatives and evidence behind a recommendation.
- What immediate threats or opportunities favour castling now, choosing the other side or delaying castling? action
- What analysis supports the recommendation, and which opponent replies could overturn it? provenance
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- The intended sense is inferred to be the chess move.
- Movement distances given here apply to standard chess, not all Chess960 positions.
- Rule names and notation are recalled without source consultation; exact current wording and Chess960 edge cases should be checked before formal implementation.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Kingside castling (short castling)
- Queenside castling (long castling)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN) - O-O - Kingside castling; uses capital letter O.
- Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN) - O-O-O - Queenside castling; uses capital letter O.
- Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) - KQkq or a subset; - if none - The castling-availability field records retained rights for White and Black; retained rights do not mean castling is immediately legal.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- FIDE Laws of Chess, issued by the International Chess Federation, specify castling movement and legality.
- FIDE Guidelines for Chess960 specify castling arrangements for Chess960 starting positions.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Moves the king toward a position intended to provide greater safety while bringing a rook closer to central files.
- Influences opening plans through the timing and choice of castling side.
- Provides opportunities for attacking play when opponents castle on opposite sides.
- Requires chess software to track castling rights separately from current piece positions.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- King displacement in standard chess castling - 2 - squares along the rank
- Rook displacement in standard chess castling - 2 on the kingside; 3 on the queenside - squares along the rank
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Castling is illegal if the king or the participating rook has previously moved, even if it has returned to its original square.
- Castling is illegal while the king is in check, through an attacked square, or onto an attacked square.
- In standard chess, any piece between the king and the participating rook prevents castling.
- An attacked rook does not itself prevent castling; confusing rook attacks with attacks on the king can produce incorrect legality decisions.
- A legal castling move can still expose the king to a strategically dangerous attack.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Ordinary king move - Normally moves the king one square without moving a rook; castling is a distinct move governed by additional conditions.
- Artificial castling - Repositions the king and rook through several ordinary moves rather than one special move.
- Chess960 castling - Uses variable starting squares but ends with the king on the c-file or g-file and the rook on the d-file or f-file; one participating piece may already occupy its destination.
- Castling rights - A retained entitlement based on movement history, distinct from whether castling is legal in the current position.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of castling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Which governing rules editions should the researched model support, and which castling variants beyond standard chess and Chess960 belong within this registry entry?
- What exact attack-evaluation procedure is required for Chess960 cases where rook relocation changes lines of attack or a participating piece already occupies its destination?
- How should incomplete game histories and contradictory imported castling-right metadata be adjudicated or represented as unresolved?
- Which physical execution conventions and digital move encodings need explicit treatment to distinguish castling from ordinary king or rook moves?
- What evidence and analysis depth are sufficient to support a strategic recommendation without presenting castling as automatically improving king safety?