Rook (chess)

“ Two Rooks are slightly stronger than a Queen. They are slightly weaker than two Knights and a Bishop, and a little more so than two Bishops and a Knight. The power of the Knight decreases as the pieces are changed off. The power of the Rook, on the contrary, increases.
The King, a purely defensive piece throughout the middle-game, becomes an offensive piece once all the pieces are off the board, and sometimes even when there are one or two minor pieces left. ”

“ I made an attempt, though almost against my inclination, and after several efforts, having learned the march, my progress was so rapid, that before the end of the first sitting I gave him the rook, which in the beginning he had given me. Nothing more was necessary; behold me fascinated with chess! I buy a board, with the rest of the apparatus, and shutting myself up in my chamber, pass whole days and nights in studying all the varieties of the game, being determined by playing alone, without end or relaxation, to drive them into my head, right or wrong. ”

“ When you have thus gained possession of the file, should your opponent try to dispossess you of it, by playing one of his Rooks on the same file, it is frequently better to defend with your other Rook than to take his or remove your own. You will often embarrass your adversary, too, if you can manage to post a Rook on his second rank, say at your King's 7th or Queen's 7th square. In this position he generally makes an attack on the Pawns unmoved, and compels the enemy to lose time in defending them, while you can bring more forces into action. ”

“ For pure cussedness the knight has no equal, and when you chase him out of one hole he skips into another." Attempts have been made over and over again to obtain a short, simple, and exact definition of the move of the knight—without success. It really consists in moving one square like a rook, and then another square like a bishop—the two operations being done in one leap, so that it does not matter whether the first square passed over is occupied by another piece or not. It is, in fact, the only leaping move in chess. ”

“ An example for the cooperation of Rook and Bishop is shown in Diagram 29. White plays B-f6, and there is no way for Black to prevent the mate threatened through R-h3 followed by R-h8.
It is evident that the force of the Rooks will increase as the board gets emptier through the exchange of men, for they will then find more open lines to act in. One of the most important lines for Rooks to occupy is—especially in the ending —the one in which most of the attackable Pawns of the opponent are standing, that is in the majority of cases the second or the seventh rank respectively. ”

“ The Rook may move forward, backward or sideways in a straight line along a path not obstructed by a man of the same color. In other words, he may move to any square of the rank or file on which he stands unless another man of his own color is in the way. If there is a hostile man in the way he may capture him by occupying his square and removing him from the board.
In Diagram 2, for instance, the Rook could move to e5, e6, e7, e8, e3, e2, e1, f4, g4, d4 and c4. In making the latter move he would capture the black Bishop. ”

“ Can you fit these pieces together to form a perfect chessboard?
Pg 88
STATICAL CHESS PUZZLES. "They also serve who only stand and wait."
MILTON.
295.—THE EIGHT ROOKS.
It will be seen in the first diagram that every square on the board is either occupied or attacked by a rook, and that every rook is "guarded" (if they were alternately black and white rooks we should say "attacked") by another rook. Placing the eight rooks on any row or file obviously will have the same effect. In diagram 2 every square is again either occupied or attacked, but in this case every rook is unguarded. ”

“ Line 40, "Horse" is the knight.
Line 44, "Wind" is the rook.
Although this poem bears evidence that the moves in chess have not changed, there are one or two variations of another kind worth noticing. The Indian chessmen have an Elephant to represent the Castle, or Rook, but it is clear that the author of this poem followed the Arabic designation, as he makes the Bishop the Elephant, or פיל‎, which the Arabs called "Al fil" (see Encycl. Brit. vol. 5, p. 599) . ”

“ QUEEN AGAINST ROOK
This is one of the most difficult endings without Pawns. The resources of the defence are many, and when used skilfully only a very good player will prevail within the limit of fifty moves allowed by the rules. (The rule is that at any moment you may demand that your opponent mate you within fifty moves. However, every time a piece is exchanged or a Pawn advanced the counting must begin afresh.)
Example 40.—This is one of the standard positions which Black can often bring about. ”

“ It is White's move, but if he takes his Queen from in front of his King, he exposes it to check from the adversary's Rook. If he moves the King, then his Queen will be captured and the game will have to be drawn, and if he takes Black's Rook with the Queen, then the adverse King will be placed in a similar position, i. e., stalemate.
Support. A force is supported when it is within the range of another of the same color that would be in a position to capture it were it an enemy. An attacking force is supported by another Piece or Pawn which commands the square or position attacked. ”

“ In this ending, as in the case of the Rook, the Black King must be forced to the edge of the board; only the Queen being so much more powerful than the Rook, the process is far easier and shorter. These are the three elementary endings and in all of these the principle is the same. In each case the co-operation of the King is needed. In order to force a mate without the aid of the King, at least two Rooks are required. ”

“ A Rook generally wins against a Bishop or a Knight, sometimes even against a majority of one or two pawns, provided, of course, that there are still pawns on the Rook’s side, and that their exchange cannot be forced. The following position (Diagram 71) , from a game Moll-Post, shows how to proceed in such cases.
Here White can force a win in the following way: 1. RxP, P-Kt6; 2. R-R6, PxP; 3. RxP, K-B2; 4. R-B2, B-Kt5; 5. R-B4, B-R4; 6. P- B4! The Black pawn position must first be torn up, if it is to be attacked successfully. ”

“ In Castling, the King must be moved first, or before the Rook is quitted. If the Rook be quitted before the King is touched, the opposing player may demand that the move of the Rook shall stand without the Castling being completed. ”

“ The plan, of course, as explained above, is to go to Kt 5 in due time and threaten mate at K R 8, but it is now too late, the White Rook having come in {195}time to prevent the manœuvre. Instead of the text move, therefore, Black should have played Kt - K 5; which would have given him a draw at the very least. After the text moves the tables are turned. It is now White who has the upper hand, and Black who has to fight for a draw. ”

“ He goes back with the King to support his K P, and thus be able to utilise his Rook. It is, however, useless, and only White's weak play later on gives him further chances of a draw.
To prevent the Black Rook from controlling the open file
He must keep his King on that side because White threatens to march with his King to R 6 via Kt 4.
He can do nothing but wait for White. The text move stops White from moving his Rook, but only for one move.
The only other move was K - R 2; when White could play R - Kt 7, or even P - Kt 5. {118}
A weak move, which gives Black a fighting chance. ”

“ A Rook is of the value of five Pawns and a fraction, and may be exchanged for a minor Piece and two Pawns. Two Rooks may be exchanged for three minor Pieces. ”

“ The quick eyes of the Bishop had perceived a drift of rooks when on their evening flight to the rookery were passing along the very line which divided the hawk from the heron. A rook is a hard temptation for a hawk to resist. In an instant the inconstant bird had forgotten all about the great heron above her and was circling over the rooks, flying westward with them as she singled out the plumpest for her stoop. ”

“ Then there was Rooks, the only chess-player in the place, who, not having anybody to play with him, is always bragging of the game, and his skill thereat, and depreciating whist in an equal degree. He always seizes the ‘Illustrated London News’ directly it comes into the Reading-room, turns to the chess problems first of all, and stays half an hour poring over them, before he will look at the pictures himself or allow anybody else to do so. He pretended to be very anxious that the new-comer should be a chess-player ”

“ Rooks would seem to believe that while there is life there is hope. A dead rook displayed before other rooks for the first time attracts no particular attention beyond a casual inspection. But if a rook is wounded, and especially if it hops about with a broken wing, other rooks will swoop about it, and hover above with wonderful perseverance, squawking all the time excitedly, even in spite of a man with a gun. ”

“ But one imagines the rooks would still have a sporting chance. Probably crows have a black enough reputation among other birds to inspire a general fear. And rooks are cowards. It is a common sight to see them put to shameful flight by peewits or missel-thrushes when they have ventured near the others' nesting-places. Yet a rook could kill a missel-thrush or peewit if it had the pluck to fight. The gamekeeper knows that the hissing and spitting of a sitting partridge will cause a rook to approach her very cautiously. A jackdaw, one would say, has ten times the spirit of a rook. ”

“ From the short, fuller neck,—the head bent peeringly downwards,—but, above all, from the hawk-like movements of the wing, the sportsman will be able to distinguish the hooded-crow from the rook at a moment when he may be too distant to observe the black and more hooked bill,—and never let him spare. He should be suspicious of every bird he sees crossing and re-crossing a field,—in reality hunting it with as regular a beat as a pointer’s. ”

“ At the moment when the noisy crowd come back to the rookery and settle on their accustomed perches, a simultaneous pull at several lines connected with properly-laid nooses will generally secure a victim or more. Another plan by which a rook is made to look even more foolish is to go round with a plough in a field where rooks come to pick up the worms which it turns up. The rook-catcher must be provided with a number of paper hoods made like large extinguishers, and these he will place upside down in the furrow with a tempting bait—grain, worm, or meat—in their inside. ”

“ It has been said that the rook in full plumage is no mean flier. He has also a good head on his glossy shoulders, and he shifts cleverly enough while his lungs and muscles hold out. He does not often lose his head, in the metaphysical sense. Sometimes, when particularly close shots graze him, or even feather him, he is frightened into wasting a little breath in an angry complaining croak. ”

“ Rooks are much more wonderful creatures than anybody knows about. In my own garden, for instance, there is a rook who acts as chaplain to a whole rookery. He might almost be called a "bird of pray." Every Saturday he assembles all the rooks on one large tree, and caws solemnly to them for ten minutes. I have noticed (through an opera-glass) that the congregation wears a very devout appearance. Churchwarden rooks go round while the service is proceeding, and peck any birds that seem inattentive. ”

“ If the rook has put in to a very low tree or a tall hedge, he may often be dislodged by throwing sticks and stones at him, or sending a boy up. Sometimes snapping a cap on a pistol, or cracking a whip, or making any other sudden and loud noise, will put him on the wing again. But before going far, he is only too likely to put back to the same place, or to a neighbouring tree, if one is near, or to another part of the hedge. Even when the shelter is only a low line of hurdles, it is quite difficult to hustle out a rook so that the peregrine, waiting on above, may have a fair shot at him. ”

“ The male birds are in a flutter when thou walks through the rookery, they moderate their satisfaction when I pay them a call and it is the female birds who do the honors then.”
“That reminds me, mother, that Britton told me rooks intermarried generation after generation, and that if a rook brought home a strange bride, he was forced to build in a tree the community selected, at some distance from the rookery. ”

“ They call their lifeless comrade from the ground.” If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the rooks appear to animate him to make fresh exertions by incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to follow them. I have seen one of my labourers pick up a rook so wounded, which he shot at for the purpose of putting him up as a scare-crow in a field of wheat ”

“ Do not be too much afraid of losing a rook for an inferior piece; though a rook is better than any other, except the queen, yet it seldom comes into play, so as to operate, until the end of the game; and it is generally better to have a worse piece in play than a superior out.
28. When you have moved a piece, which your adversary drives away with a pawn, that is a bad move, your enemy gaining a double advantage. At this nice game no move can be indifferent. ”

“ In fact, the only numbers with which the first player ought to lose are 5 and multiples of 8 added to 5, such as 13, 21, 29, etc.
393.—THE TWO ROOKS.—solution
The second player can always win, but to ensure his doing so he must always place his rook, at the start and on every subsequent move, on the same diagonal as his opponent's rook. He can then force his opponent into a corner and win. Supposing the diagram to represent the positions of the rooks at the start, then, if Black played first, White might have placed his rook at A and won next move. ”