Newbie castling questions

kingside or queenside castling with moved side pawns?

1. Kingside castling is more common because for one thing it's a lot quicker. You only have to move 2 pieces whereas on the queenside you need to move 3 and often want to move your king to b1 afterwards.

2. Generally you don't want to have moved any of the pawns. It creates a target for attack. e.g. if you have a pawn on h3 black can sometimes sacrifice a bishop there to open up your king's cover, or push a pawn down the g file to open up lines against your king. This 'lever' isn't available if your pawns haven't moved.

That said, there are benefits to h3. It protects against back rank mates and can stop black's pieces using g4 (often a bishop pinning your knight). So for example in the Ruy Lopez white may play h3 to stop a bishop pinning the knight so the knight can support a d4 push.

IMO Question1 would be false. Question 2 would be neutral

I believe castling long is equally as valid. But I'm no expert.... perhaps that is wrong....

In this scenario (generally speaking again) castling to king side after h3 will be bad?

No, castling kingside is normal in this particular opening.

It's not that you can't castle to either side if you've moved pawns there. It's that generally you shouldn't move the pawns unless forced because they create weakness. Pawns can't move backwards as they say, and they give up control of squares as they advance.

But again, there are legitimate openings which involve moving the g pawn forward one square and putting the bishop there. For black for example in the Sicilian Dragon. But this has the problems of weakening the h6 and f6 squares if white can trade off black's bishop, and also creating a pawn target that means white can push his h pawn to attack black's g pawn and therefore open the h file to support an attack. This is white's main plan against this opening. White generally castles on the queenside here so that he can push the pawns on the kingside. These pawn storms are often a factor in what side you castle.

Chess really isn't simple enough to be able to learn a 'X is good, X is bad'. You have to use your judgement in each specific position whether the positives outweigh the negatives (which you acknowledge).

Thanks a lot! I do appreciate your answers!