Bring Back Free Castling!

Think about all the beautiful possibilities free castling would offer.

It would make our beautiful game even more beautiful!!

I beg to differ, as mentioned previously, free castling was part of the "basic rules" of chess for a long time before they were changed, in fact free castling was around longer then modern castling! Free castling was abandoned in the late 1800's. That's not too long ago compared to how long chess has been around.

I still like the "abacus" notation in which the "0"s represent the empty squares, although it was incomplete in my initial post (and in the original post), and it could be modified to be mostly consistent with the existing notation (queenside being the issue):

Kingside:
00-   = ..RK
0-0-  = .R.K
0-0   = .RK.
-00-  = R..K
-0-0  = R.K.
-00   = RK..

Queenside: 
-000   = KR...
-0-00  = K.R..
0-00   = .KR..
-00-0  = K..R. 
0-0-0  = .K.R.
00-0   = ..KR. 
-000-  = K...R
0-00-  = .K..R
00-0-  = ..K.R
000-   = ...KR 

Edit - Fixed messed up Queenside notation. 

Interesting

Although my legend could also be used, perhaps more clearly....

I kinda like it myself. I didn't get it at first though now I do, the 0's represent the squares and the dash-lines are the king & rook...pretty cool.

Yeah, although when the King and the Rook are side by side there's only one dash (which aligns the Kingside notation with the current standard, but unfortunately not the Queenside).

Note that I've just updated my post since I noticed it was a bit messed up (as can be seen in your quote of it).

I think the point is to render opening theory powerless (at least for a while) without shaking the game up as much as 960 does.

Maybe this site should offer games with it as an option.

The funny thing is if free castling were to be reinstated into chess we wouldn't be "making things up", all we'd be doing is bringing things back to the way they used to be and even if I could magically reinstate free castling again I don't know if I would. As dchurchill said "it needs play-testing". But it should at least be considered! Though I wonder what the computer evaluations would be with free castling chess. So many more possibilities to consider,think about it 16 different ways to castle...WOW...

i like nothing better than an idea that shakes up the same tired repetitions of all the classic theory permutations!  don't tell the computers...

Sorry bobyyyy, but I gotta disagree with you again, chess has had some major rule changes as recently as 1992 and 2008. One example is the change to the 50-move rule which has been around forever, (introduced by Ruy Lopez in 1561) here are some excerpts about changes to this very old rule. When you read this you'll see that the rules of chess are not permanently fixed, not perfect and sometimes subject to change.

In the 20th century it was discovered that some positions of certain endgames can only be won in more than fifty moves (without a capture or a pawn move). The rule was changed to include certain exceptions in which one hundred moves were allowed with particular material combinations.

This too...

Research in the field of how many moves are required to win certain endgames has continued. Exhaustive retrograde analysis using faster computers to build endgame tablebases has uncovered many more such endgames, often of previously unsuspected length. As of 2008^[update], the record is 517 moves (assuming optimal play by both sides) to make a piece capture or exchange that achieves a simpler and more obviously winnable sub-endgame, for a particular position involving a queen and knight versus a rook, bishop, and knight.

^{As you can see rules change, even in chess and even major ones like the 50-move rule and more are on the way.}

Chess has a grand history of rule changes.

Free us and liberate us from the stifling & restrictive modern castling rules oh dearest Caissa and upon us unleash FREE CASTLING!!!

Oh, how I dream of the day that I can castle 16 different ways...just like in days of old.

It will shake up early-castle opening like the Ruy Lopez.

I just died laughing.

It sure will! It'll turn opening theory on it's head! That's one of the many reasons proponents of free castling site to bring it back again here's an excerpt from the chess cafe article about this...

I certainly do not advocate Passar Battaglia but I would seriously
suggest that Free Castling is a reform that would be well worth
adopting to reduce the impact of theory and computers on the game
as it is played now. This would send publishers in a scurry to find
books of old Italian games as 99.9% of current opening theory
would immediately become redundant

Isn't that great!!

Glad to see you like it too!