No Castling Chess is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and thoroughly explored by DeepMind, the team behind AlphaZero.[1] In this variant, every rule is the same as chess, except that castling is not allowed. This variant reduces king safety, theoretically leading to more dynamic games, as it would be considerably harder to force a draw and the pieces would be forced to engage in a mêlée.
According to Kramnik, who assisted DeepMind, in exploring this variant, this game helps to sidestep opening preparation.[2] He added: "This would inevitably lead to a considerably higher amount of decisive games in chess tournaments until the new theory develops, and more creativity would be required in order to win."[3][4]