castling strategy

In a game where a player could reasonably castle kingside or queenside i'm wondering what theindicators are to determine which side to castle?

Or just toss a coin?

I only castle Queenside as a last resort. Almost every game I've played with a Queenside castle has been lost very quickly by the player who castled Queenside!

king side leaves the king better protected, but it can very quickly turn nasty if the rook is captured. Use caution when castling, to either side.

>>Renegade   \o/

Opposite side castling often leads to a game where both players start a pawn attack on the opponent's king. So don't do that when it looks like his attack is going to be a lot faster than yours.

Castling kingside is a great choice in systems that develop the kingside pieces quickly (Ruy Lopez, Italian Game, Petroff, etc.) or just to get a secure home for the king. However, it is a very poor choice sometimes - for example, if (as white) you have a knight on h3 and you castle, Black's queen bishop can capture the knight and immediately ruin the protection around your king. Most of the time, castling kingside works just fine, but watch out for greek gift sacrifices, because they can get rather nasty. . . ;)

Castling queenside is often seen in systems where the player gets a half-open D file and they want to control it immediately with a rook, or in setups like the Sicilian Dragon where it is considered best to castle queenside and storm the kingside pawns toward the opponent. However, it does leave the king in a central spot and the a-pawn is unprotected, meaning that the position is more vulnerable, so safety moves such as Kb1 and maintaining the knight on c3 are useful or needed.