Each player may "castle" only once during a game and when conditions are met. Castling is one of the more complicated moves in chess. It's the only time when a player can move more than one piece on a move. Castling is often a very important move because it allows you to place your King in a safe location and also allows the Rook to become more active.

How do you improve your performance? Do you study endgames a lot? Or are you an openings person? Some of you might be pouring over grandmaster games, maybe of your favourite grandmasters? These are really good ways to improve your chess ability and improve your chess game performance too. But there are times, when even after thorough preparation, you drop a piece during a tournament play, or may have missed or overlooked a check and allowed your opponent a crucial advantage. This happens even to the best of us, Vishwanathan Anand for example, missed one such bishop move in his World championship opening game and lost a crucial point. But what if I say, there is a way to prevent this from happening to you?

He was born in London, England in 1945. David Levy was the Scottish chess champ at the age of 22 and Levy played John McCarthy a friendly game of chess at an AI workshop in Edinburgh in 1968 and he made a bet of 500 pounds with John at that time regarding the future of computer chess. In 1977, David defeated KAISSA. He defeated chess 4.9, 4.7 later and then in 1978 won his bet from McCarthy for several thousand dollars. David Levy is the author of an unbelievable number of books.  He’s written about 40 to 50 books on the subjects of computers, chess, and a wide range of subjects and is extremely prolific. He’s President of the International Computer Games Association and he helped organize the IBM Kasparov Deep Blue Match.

In Igor Khmelnitsky’s Chess Exam and Training Guide, he gives a procedure toward the end of the book for going over your own games. I’ve used it a couple of times, and I like it. As an adult player, trying to improve but with limited study time, I find this approach to be practical.
Here’s a summary of the procedure:
Write brief notes, as soon as possible after the game, to capture your thought process. Store your games in a database. (I use ChessBase 8.) Identify critical moves that might have been strategically wrong, and record ideas that might have been better. Use a chess program’s “blunder check” to find tactical mistakes. (I use Fritz.) Play against a chess program to test out your new strategic ideas. (I haven’t had time to do this.) Review the opening phase. Find a stopping point between the 10th and 20th moves and summarize its outcome. Make a note of anything you’d like to do differently next time.

The following is instruction for some and refresher for others, read on…..
In chess the word "opening" has two common meanings: the first stage of a chess game and also the first sequence of moves. 
A good opening will provide better protection of the King, control over an area of the board (particularly the center), greater mobility for pieces, and possibly opportunities to capture opposing pawns and pieces.  Some are direct, while others are more subtle and indirect approaches toward these goals.

There are two ways to win a chess game. One way is solid, steady, and unspectacular. You gradually outplay your opponent, piling small advantage on top of small advantage. You win a little material advantage along the way, and finally score a win in the end game.
The other way is harder but much more satisfying. You activate your pieces early in the game, generating threats that push your opponent back to the wall. You blast through the pawns and pieces guarding his King with a brilliant sacrifice, crown your achievement with an amazing checkmate, seemingly conjured out of thin air.

While browsing through some old collections of mine, i came across this article published in some chess newsletter in the mid 1990's. I hope that I can reproduce it here without any problems. I do not recall the Newsletter, I have just saved the text and the author.
Chess is a great sport, but let’s admit it doesn’t offer much in the way of cardiovascular fitness.
So, hoping to expand my repertoire of hobbies a bit -- as well as to get some exercise and prevent a stroke before I turn forty -- I recently started checking into martial arts classes. What I learned about Karate also taught me something about chess.

The opening is a race to see who can get their pieces out first while keeping at least a share of control of the center.’ To illustrate this point, we will be introducing the Evans Gambit.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4
The Evan's Gambit - Position after 4.b4
This opening, a variation of the Giuoco Piano, is named after the British sea captain, W. D. Evans who invented it in the 1820s. With 4.b4 White deflects the Black Bishop from its control of the centre squares and White gives up a pawn to gain rapid development and open lines for his pieces. With 4.b4 White deflects the Black Bishop from its control of the centre squares and This opening is not as popular today as it used to be but it is still played by some grandmasters.

Making a lasting mark at chess is a tough thing to do. Maybe you play as well as Kasparov, or compose as splendidly as Grigoriev, or teach as memorably as Purdy, but not many of us attain the levels of skill required
to do those things.
Some players achieve some immortality by attaching their names to an opening. Sometimes the moves are not so good - Robert Durkin claimed 1. Na3 - and sometimes they are based in real positional grounds. Two different wing gambits, where one side aims for center control by deflecting an enemy bishop pawn, have been named for Bay Area players.

Compiled by Steven Craig Miller
1. e4 e5
2. Nc4 …
Other 2nd moves for White include:
2. f4 — King’s Gambit
2. Nc3 — Vienna Game
2. Bc4 — Bishop’s Opening
2. d4 — Center Game & Danish Gambit

Excerpt from Chess Step by Step - by Frank Marshall and J.C.H. Macbeth
The intelligent reader may enquire: "Why am I supposed to study Chess Strategy, while I have only a very slender knowledge of the Chess Openings?" The reply to this question is, that learning Chess is somewhat similar to learning a language. We all know that children acquire a certain vocabulary of their native tongue before they begin to delve into the mysteries of grammar and syntax, and, as a matter of fact, a considerable proportion of people of all nationalities are content to go through life without troubling themselves to learn the laws and principles which govern their language. In Chess, knowledge of the moves and how to play under certain given conditions is equivalent to acquiring a vocabulary in a language, and the syntax may be said to be the study and analysis of the Openings, which we have therefore reserved for a later stage, by which time the student will be better equipped for the task of making himself conversant with the subtleties and beauties of the many and complex variations in the different Chess Openings.

Do not move any pawns in the opening of a game but the King and Queen pawns. Do not move any piece twice in the opening, but put it at once on the right square. Bring out your knights before developing your bishops, especially the Queen's Bishop. Do not pin the adverse King Knight (ie. by Bg5) before your opponent has castled.

Get your pieces out into the center quickly. The opening is a race to see who can get their pieces out first while keeping at least a share of control of the center. This is the main point to remember; all the other rules are just footnotes to this one More detail on winning the race: Move pieces not pawns, and move them to their best squares in one move if you can, and also try to gain time if you can by aggressive moves. Move minor pieces out first, not your Q or RRs which can be attacked and lose time Get a firm foothold in the center and don't give it up Generally move Knights straightaway to f3/c3 or f6/c6 Move your king to safety at the side by castling King's-side (which also gets your Rook into play) Complete your development before moving a piece twice or starting an attack Keep your queen safe Don't grab pawns or attack if you haven't completed development What to do if there is a lead in development: If you are ahead in development, start something going and open up lines for your better pieces If you are behind in development, don't start anything and keep things closed until you have caught up

"A knowledge of tactics is the foundation of positional play. This is a rule which has stood its test in chess history and one which we cannot impress forcibly enough upon the young chess player. A beginner should avoid Queen's Gambit and French Defence and play open games instead! While he may not win as many games at first, he will in the long run be amply compensated by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the game" - RICHARD RETI

Title:Back to Basics:Tactics
Author: Dan Heisman
Published by : Russell Enterprises (September 15, 2007)
Paperback: 192 Pages
I am reading  Dan Heisman’s Back To Basics: Tactics about a week ago. The book aims to teach tactical concepts to “beginning players who have never played tournament chess or who possess a U.S. Chess Federation rating lower than 1500″ or online players with a rating below 1700. I believe the book is well-suited for this purpose and audience. I also think players rated 100-200 points higher might use this book for a quick “tactical tune-up” if they are a bit rusty.

This is a synopsis of  an Interview on Twitter conducted by Forbes India, a few days after he had retained the World Championship title against Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Must have for an Anand Fan! Vishwanathan Anand 
On turning 40 and being called the Lightning Kid: Its not a big deal, I feel the same, just entering your age in places surprises you!

What was the first variant game of chess played by a computer — a simplified version of the game scaled down so the earliest number-crunching systems could actually handle the analytical demands?
The answer is Los Alamos Chess (sometimes called anti-clerical chess), played on a six-by-six chessboard, rather than eight-by-eight. Named for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, this version excludes bishops.
In 1956, scientists at Los Alamos used this chess variant as the basis for the world’s first chess computer program, written for the MANIAC I computer. To completely scale back the game for the benefit of MANIAC I, the game excluded en passant capture, two-position pawn openings, and castling as possible moves.

These are a few steps  believe can help with openings in chess.
Identify the first unfamiliar position. (Out of book, in other words) Evaluate the results of the opening—as the game transitions into the middle game, how do both players stand? Are you happy with the results from the opening phase? Play over the opening moves and look for improvements. In particular, look for candidate moves that you didn’t really consider during the game. (This is because you tend to overlook good candidate moves.) Use ChessBase to run opening reports, find similar games, etc., to help confirm what you’d like to play next time, and to get ideas about piece development and middle game plans. Save the result into a ChessBase database devoted to that particular opening.

Did you know what the Scientific American thinks of Chess as a  game? Read this direct quote -
“A pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and villages. Why should we regret this? It may be asked. We answer, chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while it affords no benefit whatever to the body. Chess has acquired a high reputation as being a means to discipline the mind, but persons engaged in sedentary occupations should never practice this cheerless game; they require out-door exercises—not this sort of mental gladiatorship.”As quoted in Scientific American, July 2009

I saw an interesting article in Chess Life Online called “Moving up the Ladder: A Class Player on Gaining 200 Rating Points” by Christian Glawe.
6 Points that really stood out for me - 
Study your own games with an instructor. Study openings based on pawn structures and plans instead of variations. For example, study the Mastering the Chess Openings series by Watson. When reviewing a particular opening line, use a games database to gather 50-100 GM games played in that variation. Play through them quickly. Make a note of the common ideas and motifs. Time: 30 minutes. Analyze every blitz game you play. 30-45 minutes of tactical training exercises every day. (The author prefers chesstempo.com.) Exercise to improve your stamina for those two-day weekend tournaments.

(From the Excellent web site, How to Play Chess:   http://www.chessdryad.com/education/magictheater/index.htm  )
Recommended For Beginners in Chess DON'T bring your KING out with your OPPONENT'S QUEEN on the board. The KING must be ACTIVE in the ENDING. IN SUPERIOR POSITIONS, to ATTACK the ENEMY KING, you must OPEN a file (or less often a diagonal) for your HEAVY PIECES (QUEEN and ROOKS).

The computer is just too good to play against. Witness World Champion Vladimir Kramnik’s drawn 8-game match against Deep Fritz the multiprocessor version of Fritz 7. The pre-match hype was incredible. Fritz was described as “the most lethal chess computer ever created” by Nigel Farndale in the Daily Telegraph. Author
Monty Newborn, whose book Deep Blue: An Artificial Intelligence Milestone was published in October, said that today’s computer programs “are playing at least as good as Deep Blue”, the IBM supercomputer that defeated Kasparov in 1997.