Answers.Body: <p>In praxis, a nonissue. You see a backranker coming from miles ahead. Unless you are really a beginner. But in this case, as you observed, the weakening of the king position is even worse: The backrank pattern can be learnt and avoided very easily. But a weakened king position can be used in several ways.</p>
  <p>I thus would avoid any &quot;luft&quot; (it also costs a tempo!) unless it is really necessary for concrete reasons.</p>
  <p>As soon as enough pieces have been traded, and your rook(s) want to go wandering, I'd say: h6 if there is still enough material to attack, g6 if an enemy rook can play stinker on the 7th (otherwise your king may get cut off too), f6 if not - to bring your king to the center fast.</p>
  <p>You are also correct that the best surplus defender of the (white short) castled king is a Nf3, with h3 or not.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-07-29T03:33:51.627Z
Answers.Text: “_You see a backranker coming from miles ahead. Unless you are really a beginner_” I’m kinda a superduperultra beginner, but it’s fine. “_You are also correct that the best surplus defender of the (white short) castled king is a Nf3, with h3 or not._” I thought h3 would prevent Black from playing Bg4 and try to take the knight, eg. in the opening. Thanks for answering. +1
Answers.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
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Answers.CreationDate: 2022-07-29T06:56:32.007Z
Answers.Text: @insipidintegrator: Depends, but an immediate backrank tactics, even for a beginner like you, is far more obvious to pattern-check than some ominous pawn-storm building up against the weakness you caused with h3. You are also correct with Bg4 being annoying - for a superduperultra beginner you have a fine feeling for chess details :-)
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauke Reddmann
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Answers.CreationDate: 2022-07-28T19:35:24.770Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2022-07-28T19:35:24.770Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauke Reddmann
Body: <p>Basically, I want to keep my king safe after a kingside castle.</p>
  <ul>
  <li><p>I want to avoid this:</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/8/8/8/8/5PPP/2r3K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>The configuration is such that none of my pieces can access the f1 square. I can’t trust any of the pawn advances, because:</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>For this one,</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/8/8/8/7P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>I’ll get stuck if Black plays Bxh3 from this position.</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/4b3/6q1/8/7P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  </li>
  <li><p>For this,</p>
  <pre><code>8/1b6/8/8/8/6P1/5P1P/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>the bishop/queen can control basically all of the squares that the king can move to.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>For this,</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/8/8/8/5P2/6PP/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>the problem is that the king is susceptible to such attacks and can be pushed to the corner a1:</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/1b6/8/8/5P2/6PP/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  </li>
  </ul>
  <p>With my fledgling (1 month) experience of playing chess regularly, I have found these to be the two best configurations while playing:</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/8/8/8/5N1P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>and</p>
  <pre><code>8/8/8/8/8/7P/5PPB/6K1 w - - 0 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>I would be really grateful if I could have some advice as to beneficial positions with regards to  keeping the king safe.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-28T17:39:55.393Z
Comments.Text: In your last position you still have back rank mate issue, just like you do in the first position.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Akavall
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-28T17:41:49.533Z
Comments.Text: Ah..sorry didn’t notice that. I can see it now. Actually I kept this position during the opening so I didn’t worry about it.
Comments.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-28T19:58:46.130Z
Comments.Text: In general you shouldn't advance pawns in front of your king unless there is a concrete reason for doing so, and I do agree with Hauke's answer if you want some general advice to rely on starting out. However, the reasoning I saw in your post worries me, since you're seemingly discarding entire basic setups because you can imagine a hypothetical way to attack them, independent of any concrete position. This kind of overgeneralized reasoning does not work in chess; the concrete demands of the position at hand tend to take priority over any kind of principles that we can give.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Scounged
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-29T03:35:02.490Z
Comments.Text: “_This kind of overgeneralized reasoning does not work in chess_” noted. Thanks @Scounged!
Comments.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-30T00:50:17.003Z
Comments.Text: Safest square for the King is g0 :)  You can never be safe.  Books are written on how to attack a castled position.  Try instead to be safer than your opponent.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Michael West
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-30T07:36:26.867Z
Comments.Text: @MichaelWest what? Take the king off the board??? Oh my, why hadn’t I thought of this!!?!! Send the king away to a nice little vacation while the other pieces fight for their homeland!
Comments.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
Tags: <strategy><castling><kings><king-safety>
Title: With regards to the safety of the king when castling kingside
ThreadText: # With regards to the safety of the king when castling kingside
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-07-28)
  
  Basically, I want to keep my king safe after a kingside castle.
  
  * I want to avoid this:
  
    ```
    8/8/8/8/8/8/5PPP/2r3K1 w - - 0 1
  
    ```
  
    The configuration is such that none of my pieces can access the f1 square. I can’t trust any of the pawn advances, because:
  * For this one,
  
    ```
    8/8/8/8/8/7P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
    ```
  
    I’ll get stuck if Black plays Bxh3 from this position.
  
    ```
    8/8/4b3/6q1/8/7P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
    ```
  * For this,
  
    ```
    8/1b6/8/8/8/6P1/5P1P/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
    ```
  
    the bishop/queen can control basically all of the squares that the king can move to.
  * For this,
  
    ```
    8/8/8/8/8/5P2/6PP/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
    ```
  
    the problem is that the king is susceptible to such attacks and can be pushed to the corner a1:
  
    ```
    8/8/1b6/8/8/5P2/6PP/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
    ```
  
  With my fledgling (1 month) experience of playing chess regularly, I have found these to be the two best configurations while playing:
  
  ```
  8/8/8/8/8/5N1P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
  ```
  
  and
  
  ```
  8/8/8/8/8/7P/5PPB/6K1 w - - 0 1
  
  ```
  
  I would be really grateful if I could have some advice as to beneficial positions with regards to keeping the king safe.
  
  **Tags:** strategy, castling, kings, king-safety
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: In your last position you still have back rank mate issue, just like you do in the first position.  
  > **username_0**: Ah..sorry didn’t notice that. I can see it now. Actually I kept this position during the opening so I didn’t worry about it.  
  > **username_2**: In general you shouldn't advance pawns in front of your king unless there is a concrete reason for doing so, and I do agree with username_4's answer if you want some general advice to rely on starting out. However, the reasoning I saw in your post worries me, since you're seemingly discarding entire basic setups because you can imagine a hypothetical way to attack them, independent of any concrete position. This kind of overgeneralized reasoning does not work in chess; the concrete demands of the position at hand tend to take priority over any kind of principles that we can give.  
  > **username_0**: “_This kind of overgeneralized reasoning does not work in chess_” noted. Thanks @username_2!  
  > **username_3**: Safest square for the King is g0 :)  You can never be safe.  Books are written on how to attack a castled position.  Try instead to be safer than your opponent.  
  > **username_0**: @username_3 what? Take the king off the board??? Oh my, why hadn’t I thought of this!!?!! Send the king away to a nice little vacation while the other pieces fight for their homeland!  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2022-07-28. Score: 7 | Accepted answer
  
  In praxis, a nonissue. You see a backranker coming from miles ahead. Unless you are really a beginner. But in this case, as you observed, the weakening of the king position is even worse: The backrank pattern can be learnt and avoided very easily. But a weakened king position can be used in several ways.
  
  I thus would avoid any "luft" (it also costs a tempo!) unless it is really necessary for concrete reasons.
  
  As soon as enough pieces have been traded, and your rook(s) want to go wandering, I'd say: h6 if there is still enough material to attack, g6 if an enemy rook can play stinker on the 7th (otherwise your king may get cut off too), f6 if not - to bring your king to the center fast.
  
  You are also correct that the best surplus defender of the (white short) castled king is a Nf3, with h3 or not.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: “_You see a backranker coming from miles ahead. Unless you are really a beginner_” I’m kinda a superduperultra beginner, but it’s fine. “_You are also correct that the best surplus defender of the (white short) castled king is a Nf3, with h3 or not._” I thought h3 would prevent Black from playing Bg4 and try to take the knight, eg. in the opening. Thanks for answering. +1  
  > **username_4**: @username_0: Depends, but an immediate backrank tactics, even for a beginner like you, is far more obvious to pattern-check than some ominous pawn-storm building up against the weakness you caused with h3. You are also correct with Bg4 being annoying - for a superduperultra beginner you have a fine feeling for chess details :-)  
  
  ---
  
  