MarkB
Legend
It isn't. Until your post, the last reply was over a year old.
In the intervening year, no real official clarification of Charge rules has emerged. Generally speaking, discussions of the rules still tend towards a general (but certainly not universally-held) consensus that moving "directly" means each step must reduce the range in squares between you and the target, and that squares which you can reach in the same number of steps using the above rule count as being equidistant for purposes of defining "nearest square".
Not if you have to actually turn the corner, because at some stage one of your steps won't actually take you closer to the target. Individual cases will vary as to whether that's a problem.
Coxy has the answer to that one. The 4e version of the 5-foot-step - a shift - costs you a move action, so you won't have enough actions available to shift, move, then charge without spending an action point.
If you're feeling brave, you can quite legitimately move back and then charge in again, but that will provoke an Opportunity Attack when you move away from your target.
