Just little ol me talking here,but I think the rook to move is F1. The F2 pawn isn't going to move for a while,whereas the queenside pawns can move forward to gain space in that area. So A1 rook stays or moves to B1 to support that expansion.
My rating isn't very high so this may be all wrong,but it is what I think about which rook to move.
Maybe, although the post-game computer analysis on the site didn't object.
Actually, I take that back. Here's the full game with computer annotation. It did suggest 12.Bxe5.
In 20...Na5 computer variation,why does computer think 21...Rg5 is best move after 21.f4?
Why to sacrifice rook ?Black can very well move the rook to e7,e8,f5 or h5 squares.
Is it because of the threat of 22.Rg1+Kh8 23.Bg7+Kg8 24.Bxf6+Kf8 25.Bxd8 ?
Jitesh - I saw that too and kind of scratched my head. I would have moved to e7 to keep white's bishop off of the f7 pawn. I'm not always clear on what the computer analysis is thinking.
I was wondering about this same situation, which rook to move!?
If you've decided you want a rook on d1, the next question is: where will you most likely want your other rook?
In this case, I don't anticipate needing rook#2 on the f-file or e-file. It's much more likely that I'd want it on the c-file or possibly the b-file. Hence, if I wanted to move a rook to d1, I'd move the f-rook.
The bigger question is where you ultimately want to set up both rooks. If you decide you want a rook on c1, but are undecided on whether you'd like the second rook on d1 or b1, then you have a real which-rook quandary.
Of course, as someone else pointed out above, 12. Bxe5 simply wins a pawn and is preferable to any rook move.
I thought that leaving it near the king to protect middle-game type checkmates and then moving it across to the a-file when the time comes was better than losing a crucial move in trying to protect your king? i'm not a very good chess player but that's just me thinking out loud.
Sometimes it makes sense to keep a rook on f1 to protect the king, but in this particular position it really isn't needed. White has a ton of other pieces on the kingside already, so black doesn't have any serious attacking threats there.
Frequently I run into this situation where I have a choice of rooks to use in occupying an open file. I'd appreciate any comments people have about which rook they would choose and why. My move in this game was, after much uncertain deliberation, to move Rf-d1.