castling over pieces?

I have book by Fred Reinfeld, in which he includes some rules about castling. He says "The squares between the King and Rook involved in Castling must be vacant." On the following page he writes "Castling is impossible if the King has to pass over a square controlled by enemy pieces. (On the other hand, note that a Rook can pass over squares controlled by enemy pieces)".

So which is it? Can the Rook pass over enemy pieces during castling or not?

Is this to say that White can castle even if there is an enemy piece on b1, and that Black can castle even if there is an enemy piece on b8?

Another interesting thought: if the Rook can move over enemy pieces during castling, the enemy piece being moved "over" can only be a Knight or a Bishop, since any other piece would put the King in check.

There's no ambiguity here. Just take Reinfeld at his words.

You can castle if:

- The king and the rook both haven't moved yet.
- There are NO pieces between the king and rook.
- The fields where the king is passing to are not under attack by the opponents pieces. However, the rook can pass trough fields under attack by the opponents pieces.

Thanks for the clarification.

For some exercises,try to see if the following position can castle.

A general rule for castling is:

You may not castle to get out of check, you make not castle into check, you make not castle through check.

The rook may go through a square that is controlled by an enemy piece, but the King cannot.

Hope this helps! =)

barefoot_player

Yeah,hope that helps.