I have to agree with yenkatesh, castling is a mixed bag. In concept, its a good way to get your rook out there. If you do it too early, the rook will still be pretty closed in, but your king will have a pretty solid defense unless you drop the ball.

I find that castling anything later than early-mid probably finds you with underused rooks, and not as solid a defence due to pawn movement. Still viable, but it can be tricky if you get distracted easily. I get distracted easily. If I don't get the castle early, I am not as likely to use it, but rather simply deploy one rook in another fashion, but keep the other around for some more versatile defense. 

 

Not an expert analasys by any means, but my humble experience. I have a habit of leaving my rooks just twiddling their imaginary thumbs while the knights and bishops get all the love, so I have always found castling to be a useful early move. 

castling in the opening is recommended as u get a tempo with ur rook... however, if one doesn't castle early in the game, then in the middle game, it depends upon the position whether to castle or not... moreover, castling is adivisable on tht side where the foe's pieces r less developed....

Sometimes castling can be dangerous. Like building a wall around the king so he can not escape from checkmate. But more often than not, it is very useful.

What do other members think about castling? Do you use it a lot? Or is it unnecessary, when you win so quickly?