Learning to use the rook

So, we continue our mission to explain all of the individual chess pieces and how you can use them in the best ways possible in your battle against your opponent. Each piece is important in its own way and has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you wish to get really good in the game of chess, then we recommend you to study out all of the pieces individually and learn what they are all about. So, today we will share some information with you on one of the most powerful pieces in the entire game – the rook.

After the queen, the second most powerful piece in the game is the rook. You only have two rooks at the beginning of the game – use them wisely. They move both vertically and horizontally. At the beginning of the game, they are placed in the corners of the board.

Don’t use the rook to early

Most of the novices make the mistake of activating the rooks to early. They tend to open up their pawn structure at the end of the board so as to enable to rook to move, and then to move the rook towards the centre of the board. While the idea of activating the powerful pieces early in the game is not that bad – there are still many better ways in which you can activate your rooks.

Our first advice to you would be to leave the rooks in their place in the beginning and let the smaller pieces do their thing in the battle for the middle of the board. After you have established your presence in the middle of the board with your pawns, knights, and bishops – then it may be time to activate the rooks.

Use rooks together

One of the best ways to utilize the rooks is to connect them with one another. As things stand at the beginning of the game, the rooks are separated by 6 other pieces. In order for them to reach the full potential of their power – you will need to find a way to connect them, which means that they will be on the same rank or file, supporting each other. One of the best ways in which you can do this early in the game is through the use of the special move of castling. Castling is to be used for both things – one, to protect your king from harm, and two, to connect your rooks.

We recommend to you to work hard at learning how to mate your opponent’s king with only a king and a rook. If you learn how to do this – then it will be a cinch for you to do the exact same thing but with a queen, or two rooks. It’s not that difficult to learn how to mate your opponent’s king with a rook and king – it won’t take that long for you to learn it.

And one of the most powerful combinations of pieces in the game is the so-called battery, in which you will have a rook, the queen, and the other rook all on the same file – supporting one another. This combination can blast through most any resistance that your opponent may show, and it’s a really powerful attacking combination.

The rook is a powerful piece that should not be underestimated. Make sure that you learn all you can about it.

For more fun games we recommend checking out https://cardgamerules.net/. At that website, you will find the latest card games rules but also rules to some board games.