I personally try to castle early usually within around move 8 and the lastest that I have castled was move 15. It would be safe to say that castling depends on the situation or the board position at that time. There are not many absolutes in chess and this is certainly not one. So, I think its good practice to castle early, but if you don't and position is safe there really is no need to castle. Gothic Chess is still in its infancy and most answers will have to await years of game play but I think this is a safe assumption.

My first Gothic game was here on BK a few months ago, and I already am losing my sense for an urgency to castle. It has come on gradually, for my initial instinct was that a castled position is safer. With the 10 file board, however, when it comes to the endgame, the central position of the King seems to be stronger, if for no other reason that when he's on one side or the other, the opponent knows how long it will take him to get to the opposite corner, and can use that against him. With a central King, the opponent can make threats on both flanks, but the central King can counter-threaten to go one way or the other, and so long as the opponent does not know which way he's going, there is some power in the fact of the option remaining open. In my recent win against Matthewhall, I was forced to abandon castling early, but that did not seem to hamper my game later, much to my relief. In other games, I have moved the Bishop Pawns up one square early in the game, which tends to block the Knights moving out, but it prevents the enemy Bishops from attacking my Rooks, and it provides a somewhat unexpected strength in the center flanks early on. In my current game with Kevin, my King Bishop Pawn, having been advanced to h6, gave support to my Chancellor Pawn, which was able to move 7.g5, with exposed attack on Kevin's Archbishop, follwed by my pawn fork, 9.g4, winning the Knight on h3. It now appears that Kevin may lose his Rook as well, for my Archbishop is forking his King and Rook. My only concern with leaving the two center pawns back at f7 and e7 (f2 and e2 for White) is that it seems to confine my King, especially in the event of leaving him uncastled, or if he gets castled, the advanced Bishop Pawns tend to leave him exposed. I'm still not sure of how important that is. However, keeping the center Pawns unmoved allows for freedom of movement of my pieces in the center, especially the Chancellor, which has a miserable time around lots of pawns, and is quite awesome with an open file and a rank or two to terrorize. /Fx/