The rooks, their rows and columns

The rooks, their rows and columns

   As we all know, in chess each piece has its characteristic in mobility, they have their positions where they are strong, others where they are passive, and so on. Today we will talk about the mobility of the towers, which is by rows and columns, and about the advantage that can be obtained in a position when this piece is used correctly. Mainly because good tower management requires a great understanding of strategy in relation to a particular position. New players often use the queen and minor pieces in their games, but the rooks remain in their initial position, and do not need anything to develop the game. This happens, among other things, because the rook is the most difficult piece to put into play. Its development requires planned pawn advances, calculated captures or trades, an opportune moment to castling, etc. And as you may have already realized, all of this is generally not within the reach of a novice player.

  The creation and meaning of open columns

  For one of our rooks to come into play, it requires great preparation. In order to exercise its full power, what a rook needs are columns devoid of pawns, that is, open files. These open columns can be produced in various ways, which we will see below with a couple of examples.

   In the position of diagram 1, it is observed that the “e” column is open, both for White and for Black, and this position is reached after the following movements in the French opening:

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 (see position in diagram 1)

Another alternative of opening columns occurs in the following variant of the Sicilian defense:

The case in diagram 2 occurs with the following sequence of moves:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4

In this case, White has the open queen file (d) and Black the queen bishop file (c).

A last example of this type we have it with the following movements:

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6 + (See diagram 3)

In diagram 3 Black plays. Here the black side can choose between opening the king file (e) with move5… exf6 or the king's knight file (g) with move 5… gxf6. In both cases Black gets two open files and White one. However, although the possession of open files is transcendental to put the rooks into action, it would be wrong to assume that Black's position is superior by the mere fact of having two open files and White only one file.

Open columns as an attack factor against the king

   Taking advantage of open columns is strategically one of the simplest methods to attack the enemy king; being here where the enormous power of the towers is generally the main factor of success. But, prior to this, the path must be prepared with the advance of pawns and the placement of pieces whose mission will be to open vital columns.

It is generally best and sometimes essential to position the queen behind the rooks, allowing the minor to dislodge the eighth rank king while the queen removes the escape squares.

Let's see some examples of the above.

In the position of diagram 5 the file is fully open and is being used by the white rook and queen to attack the black monarch.

The attack continues as follows:

1. g6! fxg6 2. Qxg6 Rg8 3. Rh7 Qe7 4. Qh5 and mate is inevitable.

Let's see another example on this topic:

Pachman comments: It is worth noting that the outcome of the fight in the open files is first verified by the penetration of Black's major pieces in the seventh rank and then by doubling them in it. This is generally the important strategic goal you should aim for when operating in open columns.

Rook operation to gain material advantage

   Here are a couple of examples of positions where rooks were essential to gain material advantage in the game:

    We could see in this example that, despite Black's mistake, the opening of column A and the pass of the rook through the 4th row, made the material gain possible, taking advantage of the pin on column C.

The following example starts from the renowned Volga Gambit, characterized by the opening of columns A and B where the rooks are placed to press on White's queenside.

It could be noted with this example how Black's rooks were active and exerting a lot of pressure on the queenside through columns A and B. And thanks to this, despite White's mistake, it was possible to gain an advantage in the position. .

Rooks as resources in the endings

    There is no doubt that of all the endings, rook endings are by far the most common. For this reason, they are probably the best analyzed, with most of the examples taken from practice. Despite all this, however, they form the most difficult part of the theory of endings, and among its many writers only a few have a true command of them. Even the best grandmasters in the world have had to work hard to acquire the rook endgame technique. Capablanca, in his early years, is said to have thoroughly analyzed more than a thousand of these endings, before achieving his splendid mastery in the field.

    Below I will show two examples where the rook was very important to get the victory and draw in the end:

It could be noticed in this ending that thanks to the great rook movement, the white was able to obtain the victory.

The following example:

It could be seen that thanks to the maneuvers of the black rook, White could not achieve victory with the pawn on the e-file, and thus the game ended in a draw.

    We were able to learn in this blog the importance of the rooks in the different facets of the game, from the most basic such as the opening of the columns and how they happen, to examples where important topics are shown such as the towers in seventh, attack maneuvers against the king, and important resources in the end to obtain the suitable result. I hope you enjoyed it!