King safety first

Normally when we draw up a list of "things that are important" material is at the top of the list. Then things like pawn structure, open lines, and king safety. But in reality the first item on the list should be king safety.
One reason king safety gets overlooked as it is a little harder to quantify than a count of material. Another is that having an unsafe king isn't always a loss, while being down material (without other compensation) usually is.
However, as your opponents get better, leaving your king open to attack will result in more losses. An example of this is in this recent game from the Capablanca Memorial, where Blacks failure to castle in a timely manner is drastically punished.


Adhiban,Baskaran (2701) - Albornoz Cabrera,Carlos Daniel (2566) [A17]
54th Capablanca Mem Elite Havana CUB (2.2), 04.05.2019