why is castling legal here?

its my understanding the knight blocks the passage so its not possible to castle?

Castling is illegal when a piece controls a square which is in path of the king castling, the king goes from e8 to g8 your knight controls h8 which is not a square in the of the king castling, if your knight was controlling f8 or g8 castling would have been illegal

yeah what he said
the knight wasn't blocking or controlling the square which the king needs to pass in order to castle
so it should be completely fine to castle

Actually, I was going to point out that it was even a key move in a classic old game by Petrov...until I realized that was it. :)

It's legal because it's not illegal.

FIDE says:
...
Castling is prevented temporarily:
[a] if the square on which the king stands, or the square which it must
cross, or the square which it is to occupy, is attacked by one or more of
the opponent's pieces, or
[b] if there is any piece between the king and the rook with which castling is
to be effected

Am such a moron to think the knight controls all the squares her L shaped path follows

@MrPushwood said in #4:
> Actually, I was going to point out that it was even a key move in a classic old game by Petrov...until I realized that was it. :)

Yep Saveilly Tartakower 500 master games

@TastyWalrus02 said in #6:
> Am such a moron to think the knight controls all the squares her L shaped path follows
Who says it's a girl knight lol?

@winstonsmithreturns said in #8:
> Who says it's a girl knight lol?
maybe its not a girl, and thats why i said am a moron cos i dont even know if its a he or she

@TastyWalrus02 said in #9:
> maybe its not a girl, and thats why i said am a moron cos i dont even know if its a he or she
Don't worry, morons have 3 digit ratings, not 2000 ratings like you do.