Rook Chess Piece
Moves | Capturing | Weaknesses
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The Rook Chess Piece ... each game begins with four of them on the board - 2 White; 2 Black. They have a relative value score of 5, so are one of your higher-value pieces on the board.
The relative weighting sees it ranked above the Pawns (1), Knights (3), and Bishops (3); but lower in rank than the Queen (9) and King (invaluable - more about this in the |
Moves
Take a look at the image below (screenshot from Chess Titans game), which shows White's R.ook - on the gold-highlighted square - about to move:
The Rook can ONLY move along the straight-line squares - NOT the diagonals - and ONLY ONE WAY, per turn.
However, it can move to any square directly - and legally - in its line of sight ... What that means is, if you take another look at the image, you'll see highlighted squares in red and blue, respectively ...
The legal moves, in this scenario, that are in line of sight for the turn of this R.ook, are:
- To any ONE of the blue-highlighted squares;
- To any ONE of the red-highlighted squares.
Moving to any of these blue-highlighted squares would just result in a positional move, but no enemy pieces would be captured.
Moves | Capturing | Weaknesses
Capturing
So, while moving to any of those blue-highlighted squares would just result in a positional move; a move to any of the red-highlighted squares would result in you Capturing ONE of either the Black R.ook, or the Bishop ...
As you can see, you've got a choice to make ...
What Tactics would you use here? ...
Move and capture, or just move to another position?
Here's what White can do - to Capture - with his (gold-highlighted) R.ook:
- Capture the (red-square) Rook ... you'll capture a like-for-like, 5-value piece; but likely lose your own to Black's Pawn, which is currently sitting on the immediate left of his Queen.
- Capture the (red-square) Bishop ... you'll capture a 3-value piece AND your piece will be immediately on a safe square, though maybe only until Black's next move.
Moves | Capturing | Weaknesses
Weaknesses
The main Weakness of the R.ook chess piece is that, unlike the Bishop, it CANNOT move along the diagonals ...
Take a third look at that image-scenario:
If White DIDN'T move his Rook - either to capture, or to move to one of the blue-highlighted squares - even if Black didn't capture it with his R.ook, White's R.ook is still threatened by Black's Queen and the Pawn sitting one square to the right of White's Queen ...
White's R.ook, being unable to capture OR move along the diagonals, would likely be captured itself, on Black's next turn.
Moves | Capturing | Weaknesses
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Return to the Beginners Chess Guide: Individual Chess Pieces page; About The Rook Chess Piece |
