When it comes to why you should castle, many positive aspects give players a lot of incentive to use the move regularly.
General Defense
Without question, defense is the primary benefit of castling.
While checkmating the opponent’s king is the number one goal in a chess match, protecting your king is equally essential and castling is among the best ways to achieve this.
Due to the king starting in the center of the board, it often falls into danger quickly once a fair number of pieces get removed from the board. Because attacks can come from the front, left, or right sides, it becomes challenging to keep your king protected if it’s exposed and you have limited pieces left.
You’ll likely find your opponent’s attacks to be especially difficult to deal with if you are trying to be aggressive at the same time. Worrying about keeping your king on the move to stay out of check while attempting to use your other pieces to put the opponent’s king in check is not a recipe for success.
You’re essentially wasting some moves moving your king when you should be using all those moves to attack.
Castling is an excellent way to avoid falling into this situation, as it tucks your king away in a safe pocket surrounded by pawns, a rook, and perhaps a bishop or a knight. Doing a castle earlier rather than later is also never a bad idea because the sooner your king is protected, the sooner you can focus on the opponent’s king.