Beginners are taught that minor piece activation is a key factor in successful openings. The more pieces you have in play, on active squares, the harder it is for your opponent to get his own pieces to active squares. In chess, good piece activation (moving that piece to a square that controls crucial territory of the board) is critical. I reiterate that pieces trapped on their starting squares have no immediate value. However, I also emphasize the idea that castling allows a player to bring his Rook closer to one of the central files. I show a game in which one player failed to castle which led to their being mated.
When I teach castling to my beginners, I emphasize King safety. I start my additional lessons on the Rook when we examine castling. Rh8# * your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard alternatively your wordpress theme might suppress the html iframe tag from articles or excerpts Therefore, I teach my students that the Rook is a piece that can play a crucial role in all phases of the game! Add to that, additional lessons on mating with a King and Rook against a lone King and it’s no wonder beginners don’t fully understand the power of the Rook! When I ask some of my newer students why they didn’t activate their Rooks earlier on, they tell me that they were waiting for the board to clear so they could employ the Rook Roller. This lesson leads students to look at the Rook as an endgame weapon used for mating purposes. This process of using the two Rooks in tandem is repeated until the Black King is mated. Again the Black King is forced to the seventh Rank. After the Black King moves to d6, White’s Rook on h4 moves to h6. Since the King can’t move to the forth Rank and cannot remain on the fifth Rank, it is forced back to the sixth Rank. After the Black King moves to c5, The Rook on a1 moves to a5. The Rook on h4 now controls the entire forth Rank which means the King cannot cross that Rank. In the highly simplified example below, White moves the Rook from h1 to h4. In this method, the Rook pair forces the opposition King back one rank or file at a time. One of the first mating patterns I teach is the rook roller or stair step method of mate. Here’s one of the first introductions the beginner gets regarding the Rook and checkmate: Beginners often then assume that the Rook is an endgame piece. The Rook is often left sitting idly on its starting square because many chess teachers first introduce the Rook during lessons about basic checkmates.
In this week’s article, we’ll look at when to bring the Rook into the game. Other beginners, knowing not to bring their Queen out early, will try to bring their Rook out prematurely only to lose it (or tempo because they have to move it out of harm’s way).
Some beginners activate one of the Rooks when they castle but often ignore the other Rook. However, to fully harness the Rook’s power, you have to bring it into the game. The Rook is one of the most versatile and powerful pieces period.
The Rook is a long distance and powerful attacker capable of both mating the opposition King in the endgame and working as a defender of advancing pawns and pieces early on. If there is one piece that is neglected by beginners, it’s the Rook! On countless occasions, I’ve watched my beginning students let their powerful Rooks sit idly on their starting squares as if this powerful piece was worthless.