Blogs
Rockin Rooks, A beginner's guide to the tower pieces Part 1
Here in the first part, we will try to explain to beginner's the power of the rook. The second part will cover development and planning.

Rockin Rooks, A beginner's guide to the tower pieces Part 1

Avatar of Em-m
Em-m
| 0

Let's face it, unless you are a chess savant, the rook is a mystery for beginners.

Ranked as a major piece along with the queen, in general the rook outvalues both the knight, and the bishop by at least two pawns each. (See relative values for chess pieces if you don't understand this)

In most games, being a full rook down has more consequences than a full bishop or a knight; in fact in intermediate to master level play, it almost always leads to a decisive result.

Yes we know this, but how does the beginner really feel it? Why is it so decisive? Why is the rook better than the knight or bishop?

THE POWER OF THE ROOK

As we've mentioned, the rook is generally a better piece than both the bishop and the knight. Here are a few reasons why:
1) Rooks are long-ranged pieces, this is the same advantage bishops have against knights.

2) Rooks can move into any square of any color in the board, the same advantage knights have against bishops

3) Rooks are fast and can get to one side of the board to the other faster than a bishop, and even faster than a knight.

4) Rooks are generally better than bishops in pinning and skewers.

5) The 2 Rooks and Queen battery is the strongest battery you can create, and its deadly power usually means game over for the other side.

Finally, I'd like to show as well that in most cases, the rook's power is relatively stable compared to the minor pieces. Let's look at these diagrams

Here we see the number of squares each piece can control from one of the powerful center squares (d4, d5, e4, and e5).
As we can see:

Rooks can control 14 squares
Bishops can control 13
Knights control 8
Now what about on the horrible corner squares (a1, a8, h1, h8)?

As we can see:
Rooks still control 14 squares
Bishops control only 7 squares, almost 50% of its powers gone
Knights, only 2, a terrifying 75% of its potential gone.
As such, in general, we can prove that rooks really are more valuable than bishops or knights. (This is not always the case).
There! I hope you were able to stay with me until the end. Due to chess.com paragraphing issue, I made a short in between article.
In part 2, we will be discussing the development and planning ideas involving the rook which is a must-know for every chess player wanting to get better. I'll see you next time!