Rook Theory Discussion

I palyed this game awhile back and on move 18 I ran into a neat little question.

Ignore the crappily played game, it was full of blunders aplenty. The real quandary resides on move 18:

In this positon, is it better to move Rad8 or Rfd8? I chose the latter solely because it looked safer, but it left the pawns on the a- and b-file bare. What would you do?

READY...SET...DISCUSS!

better is 15.... Bxf2+ so either rook move is a mistake 

Haha NM Reb is correct.. you still had the fork to follow my friend. 

Cool! If white had played 15.Rb1 instead of 15.Qd2, 15...Bxf2 would still have been a serious candidate move! 15.Rb1 Bxf2+!? 16.Kxf2 e5! 17.Bg3? Ng4+ 18.Kg1 Ne3 and Black wins the house.

I tend to look at which files I want to put each of the rooks on. e.g. if the e and d files are open I wouldn't play Rae8 because the other rook will be blocked in and it will waste tempos to occupy the d file.

Some good advice already given.

I'll just add the general idea of not just looking at the individual moves, but ask yourself how you want to position all your pieces and and make sure they'll all be coordinated and relevant.

So asking which rook to d8 isn't as precise as wondering where both rooks will end up and if they jive with all your other pieces.  As already said the most natural files are the d and c files because they're open / half open. 

As for other general considerations, you may spot pawn braeks your opponent wants, and then position your rooks prophylactically so that when your opponent does play those breaks, your rook will be on the newly opened file.

Also if you want to play a pawn break, and need support for either the break itself or to protect the squares the advancing pawn will leave behind, the rooks often help in these cases too.

Anyway the main thing to ask is if you're able to give each piece a useful job.  If one of the rook moves blocks the other rook from coming into the game, then it's an easy decision to make.

Suppose there is no tactic, then it depends on a few things:

1) Is there going to be a general exchange over the file? Then it hardly matters. I prefer the queenside rook to prevent a check.

2) Did you intend Rc8 and Rd8 or something like Rd8 and Re8? From that it follows there is only one way to accomplish this in 2 moves. So if you can figure out beforehand where both rooks are most functional you only need 2 moves. Admittedly, sometimes you just don't know and then you have to re arrange them later.

I look at the position and think to myself : if I play Rad8 what am I gonna do with the R/f8 ?     so I would prefer Rfd8 over  Rad8 if no better move was available .  If you overlooked the Bxf2 tactic then you need to work on tactics and not worry yet about the more subtle problems of " which rook " which even professionals  sometimes get wrong ... 

"Suppose there is no tactic"?

The closest thing to a general rule regarding which rook to move is "what's the best way to control the most open files?" The next question, "is which move offers the most flexibility?"

But chess is all about concrete positions. And each position has its own tactics. Tactics are an organic part of every position! It's just about impossible to imagine a chess position that is not completely drawn that has no tactics.

Heh, 15.c3 Rfd8 16.Qc2 is not so hard to imagine, giving white a spot for the queen. Who knows, in that case Rac8 could also be considered, preparing to pin the pawn. So the idea is two-fold. If white was mindful of the fork, he would not put the queen on one of the dark squares anyway. It's still safe to say something of a positional nature, even if right there a tactic was missed. 

Yeah I saw I missed the fork right after I moved the Rook, but luckily my opponent didn't! ;D

Thanks for the discussion, from what I gathered I should be thinking more about "How will I be able to maneuver this later on and how will it affect what my opponent can do?" and move from there focusing mainly on exchanges or possible tactics. And you guys say that moving Rfd8 is better in this position because Rad8 didn’t entirely…do anything special.

Though I was worried that if I moved the f-Rook, it would lead to potential mate threats down the road; given a single pawn push would remove the threat but there's still some tempo lost to avoid it, which could, in turn, be used by the opponent to develop a continuation or whatever. And that was the my sole reasoning behind moving Rad8. Thoughts? Have you ever lost extensive tempo from something like that?

You don't want to be tying such a strong piece as a rook down to some imaginary mate threats, if there's nothing in the position to suggest there's a real threat. Activity is more important IMO.