Rook (chess)

Placement and movement

| tright | |rd| | | | | | |rd | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |rl| | | | | | |rl | Starting positions of the rooks | tright | | | | |oo| | |xo| | | | |oo|pl|xo|rd|xo | | | |oo| | |xo| | | | |oo| | |pd| |oo|oo|oo|rl|oo|oo|oo|oo | | | |oo| | | | | | | |oo| | | | | | | |oo| | | | | The white rook can move to any square marked with a white dot. The black rook can move to squares with black dots, or it can capture the pawn on e7.

The white rooks start on the squares a1 and h1, while the black rooks start on a8 and h8. The rook moves horizontally or vertically, through any number of unoccupied squares. The rook cannot jump over pieces. The rook may capture an enemy piece by moving to the square on which the enemy piece stands, removing it from play. The rook also participates with the king in a special move called castling, wherein it is transferred to the square crossed by the king after the king is shifted two squares toward the rook.

Strategy

Relative value

The rook is worth about five pawns. In general, rooks are stronger than bishops or knights and are considered greater in value than either of those pieces by nearly two pawns, but less valuable than two minor pieces by approximately a pawn. Two rooks are generally considered to be worth slightly more than a queen (see chess piece relative value). Winning a rook for a bishop or knight is referred to as winning the exchange. Rooks and queens are called major pieces or heavy pieces, as opposed to bishops and knights, the minor pieces.

Development

In the opening, the rooks are blocked in by other pieces and cannot immediately participate in the game, so it is usually desirable to connect one's rooks on the by castling and then clearing all pieces except the king and rooks from the first rank. In that position, the rooks support each other and can more easily move to occupy and control the most favorable .

A common strategic goal is to a rook on the first rank of an open file (i.e., one unobstructed by pawns of either player) or a half-open file (i.e., one unobstructed by friendly pawns). From this position, the rook is relatively unexposed to risk but can exert control on every square on the file. If one file is particularly important, a player might advance one rook on it, then position the other rook behind—doubling the rooks. Having both rooks on the same file is known as a battery and can be very deadly, especially if the queen joins in as well (see Alekhine's Gun).

A rook on the seventh rank (the opponent's second rank) is typically very powerful, as it threatens the opponent's unadvanced pawns and hems in the enemy king. A rook on the seventh rank is often considered sufficient compensation for a pawn. In the diagrammed position from a game between Lev Polugaevsky and Larry Evans, the rook on the seventh rank enables White to draw, despite being a pawn down.

Two rooks on the seventh rank are often enough to force victory by the blind swine mate, or at least a draw by perpetual check. |tleft |A white rook on the 7th rank | | | | | | |kd| | |pd| |rl| | |pd| |pd| |pd| | | | | |pl| | | | |pd| | | |rd| | | | | | | | | | |pl| | | | | | | | |kl|pl|pl | | | | | | | | |White to move, draws. Polugaevsky vs. Evans, 1970 |tleft |Connected black rooks on the 7th rank | | | | | | | | |pd|pd| | |rl| | |pd | | | | |nl|kd|bd| | | | |pl| |pd| | | |bl| | | | | |pd | | | | | | | | |pl|pl| |rd|rd| | |pl | | | | | |rl| |kl |Black to move, 32...Rxh2+ and White resigns, seeing that 33.Kg1 Rdg2. Chigorin vs. Steinitz, Havana 1892

Endgame

Rooks are most powerful towards the end of a game (i.e., the endgame), when they can move unobstructed by pawns and control large numbers of squares. They have trouble restraining enemy pawns from advancing towards promotion unless they occupy the file behind them. As well, a rook best supports a friendly pawn towards promotion from behind it on the same file (see Tarrasch rule).

In a position with a rook and one or two versus two rooks, generally in addition to pawns, and possibly other pieces, Lev Alburt advises that the player with the single rook should avoid exchanging the rook for one of his opponent's rooks.

The rook is adept at delivering checkmate. Below are a few examples of rook checkmates that are easy to . A single rook can force checkmate while a single minor piece cannot. |tleft | | |rl| | | | |kd| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |kl| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A king and rook mate. The king and rook work together to force the enemy king to the edge of the board, where it can be checkmated. |tleft | | | | | | | |kd| | | | | | |pd|pd|pd | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |rl| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |pl|pl|pl | |rd| | | | |kl| |A back rank checkmate |tleft | | |rl| | | | |kd| | | | |rl| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |kl| | | | | | | | | | | |A two-rook checkmate or the "ladder checkmate"}}

History

In the medieval shatranj, the rook symbolized a chariot. The Persian word rukh means "chariot", as does the name of the corresponding piece in the original Indian version, chaturanga, ratha. In modern times, it is mostly known as हाथी (elephant) to Hindi-speaking players, while East Asian chess games such as xiangqi and shogi have names also meaning chariot (車) for the same piece.

Persian war chariots were heavily armored, carrying a driver and at least one ranged-weapon bearer, such as an archer. The sides of the chariot were built to resemble fortified stone work, giving the impression of small, mobile buildings, causing terror on the battlefield.

In Europe, the castle or tower appears for the first time in the 16th century in Vida's 1550 Ludus Scacchia, and then as a tower on the back of an elephant. In time, the elephant disappeared and only the tower was used as the piece.

In the West, the rook is almost universally represented as a crenellated turret. The piece is called torre ("tower") in Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Spanish; tour in French; toren in Dutch; Turm in German; torn in Swedish; and torni in Finnish. In Hungarian, it is bástya ("bastion") and in Hebrew, it is called צריח (he, meaning "turret"). In the British Museum's collection of the medieval Lewis chess pieces, the rooks appear as stern warders, or wild-eyed berserker warriors.

Rooks are usually similar in appearance to small castles; thus, a rook is sometimes called a "castle", though modern chess literature rarely, if ever, uses this term.

In some languages, the rook is called a ship: Thai เรือ (th), Armenian Նավակ (hy), Russian ладья (ru), Javanese ꦥꦿꦲꦸ (jv). This may be because of the use of an Arabic style V-shaped rook piece, which some may have mistaken for a ship. It is possible that the rendition comes from Sanskrit sa (ship); however, no chaturanga pieces were ever called a sa. Murray argued that the Javanese could not visualize a chariot moving through the jungles in sweeping fashion as the rook. The only vehicle that moved in straight fashion was a ship, thus they replaced it with prahu. Murray, however, did not give an explanation why the Russians call the piece a "ship".

Peter Tyson suggests that there is a correlation between the name of the piece and the word rukh, a mythical giant bird of prey from Persian mythology.

In South Slavic languages, it is called the "cannon" ().

In Kannada, it is known as ಆನೆ (āāne), meaning "elephant". This is unusual, as the term for elephant is in many other languages applied to the bishop.

Name translations

Heraldry

In Canadian heraldry, the chess rook is the cadency mark of a fifth daughter.

Unicode

Unicode defines three codepoints for a rook:

♖ U+2656 White Chess Rook

♜ U+265C Black Chess Rook

🨂 U+1FA02 Neutral Chess Rook

Notes

References

• {{citation
• {{Citation |title-link=Basic Chess Endings}}
• {{citation
• {{citation |author-link1=David Vincent Hooper |author-link2=Kenneth Whyld |orig-date=First pub. 1992
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References

1. (July 2023). "Rook - noun²".
2. "Rocco". [[Treccani]].
3. "Rocco". Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana.
4. {{Harvnb. Sunnucks. 1970
5. ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 2nd ed. (online version, accessed Jan. 27, 2009), entry for [https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/28581 "Castle"], def. 9. "''Chess''. One of the pieces, made to represent a castle; also called a ROOK.". ''[[New Oxford American Dictionary]]'', 2nd ed. (2005) says that "castle" is informal and an "old-fashioned term for rook". ''[[The Oxford Companion to Chess]]'', by [[David Hooper (chess player). David Hooper]] & [[Kenneth Whyld]], 2nd ed. (1992), p. 344 says "In English-speaking countries non-players sometimes call it a castle...". ''Let's Play Chess'' by [[Bruce Pandolfini]] (1986) p. 30, says "The rook is the piece mistakenly called the castle."; ''The Everything Chess Basics Book'' by Peter Kurzdorfer and the [[United States Chess Federation]], Adams Media 2003, page 30, says "... often incorrectly referred to as a ''castle'' by the uninitiated".
6. ''The Official Rules of Chess'' by [[Eric Schiller]], The US Chess Federation Official Rules of Chess (five editions by various authors), ''Official Chess Handbook'', by [[Kenneth Harkness]], ''Official Chess Rulebook'' by Harkness, and ''The Official Laws of Chess'' by [[FIDE]] (two editions) all use only the term "rook". Books for beginners such as ''Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'', ''A World Champion's Guide to Chess'' by [[Susan Polgar]], ''The Complete Book of Chess'' by [[I. A. Horowitz]] & P. L. Rothenberg, and ''Chess Fundamentals'' by [[José Capablanca]] (2006 revision by [[Nick de Firmian]]) also only mention "rook".
7. "The value of the chess pieces".
8. "Understanding The Value Of Chess Pieces".
9. {{Harvnb. Fine. Benko. 2003
10. "Lev Polugaevsky vs Larry Melvyn Evans (1970)".
11. {{Harvnb. Griffiths. 1992
12. The two rooks are sometimes colloquially referred to as "pigs on the seventh", because they often threaten to "eat" the opponent's pieces or pawns.
13. {{Harvnb. Alburt. 2009
14. {{Harvnb. Davidson. 1949
15. {{lang. zh. 現代漢語詞典 (Modern Chinese Dictionary). {{ISBN. 978-962-07-0211-2
16. "Article by Dr. Hans Holländer, "CYCLOPES, ELEPHANTS AND CHESS ROOKS"".
17. link
18. {{Harvnb. Hooper. Whyld. 1996
19. {{harvnb. Horton. 1959
20. Stachowski, Marek. (January 4, 2002). "Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia". Ksie̦garnia Akademicka.
21. (20 November 2022). "ภาพแห่งปี! โรนัลโด้-เมสซี่โพสต์รูปเดียวกันขณะนั่งเล่นหมากรุก".
22. Global, AIST. "Շախմատային նավակ".
23. {{harvnb. Davidson. 1949
24. Tyson, Peter. (2000). "The eighth continent: life, death, and discovery in the lost world of Madagascar". HarperCollins.
25. "English :: Kannada Online Dictionary".