Looks at Rooks

Prevision Chess Ecliptic Style - matte surface - red felted

not mine, one can only dream

cgrau’s original tal set

see here https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/at-long-last-an-original-tal-set

Love the grain!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_(chess)#History

Really like the big chunky rooks!

@chessauthor is that the Noj Minceta rook?

@AwesomeAtti, Good eye! It is a NOJ Minceta rook. My favorite of the bunch.

I really like the looks of your 'Minceta' rook @ChessAuthor. That style is quite different and appealing when compared to other Dubrovnik rooks. I've heard a story that Royal Chess Mall had previously released a Dubrovnik set with a very similar design. However, a respected chess enthusiast had pointed out that the castle in Minceta looks different, with more vertical lines without the 'taper' around its walls. RCM later then changed their design to 'more accurately' represent the real Minceta castle, with straight, vertical walls. Well, yes, RMC's new castle does look more like the real Minceta castle...but I still like your Noj design better.

In swedish, a logical language, the piece is called torn (=tower).

The war chariot was long outdated when the game came to Europe. Some say, the war chariot was already long outdated in the 6th century (time of Chaturanga), as well, and go on to argue that the games of the chess family could be much older. It's nice we have the word 'rook' left to remind us of the history to dig up. 'Rukh' is left in the terms we use in German for castling 'rochieren' (verb) 'Rochade' (noun), too. Sounds so French amid 'gardez', 'en passant' and 'remis' (draw) (but the French have 'le roque' et 'la partie nulle'). It's like having Persian alfil in Spanish for bishop or ferz in Russian from Arabic firz instead of queen. The Russians also have the name 'slon', which is Russian for elephant, instead of bishop, jester or courier. They also have 'boat' for rook. And I recently read- no concrete sources, just forum talk like this- that at the time of chaturanga both existed, they played with a war chariot or with a boat for a rook, depending on if they lived on the coast or not.

@Yenster1 Thanks for your feedback. I agree with you about other Dubrovnik rooks. NOJ has the more traditional style as well - or, more accurate if you will. But yes, this style for me is more appealing. It's very "chunky" in the hand and lends some serious heft to the piece. The look isn't for everyone, I'm sure, but get both of these beasts lined up on the same file and look out!