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Rook (chess)

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White rook
Black rook
Chess pieces
King
Queen
Rook
Bishop
Knight
Pawn

A rook (from Persian رخ rokh) is a piece in the board game of chess. It gets its name from its name in the old Indo-Arabic game (see History of chess). Each player starts the game with two rooks. When recording games, it is shortened to R, and when printed a figurine is used.

Starting place and moving

[change | change source]
Moves of the rook
abcdefgh
8
d8 black cross
g8 white circle
a7 white circle
b7 white circle
c7 white circle
d7 white cross
e7 white circle
f7 white circle
g7 white rook
h7 white circle
d6 black cross
g6 white circle
a5 black cross
b5 black cross
c5 black cross
d5 black rook
e5 black cross
f5 black cross
g5 white cross
h5 black cross
d4 black cross
g4 white circle
d3 black cross
g3 white circle
d2 black cross
g2 white circle
d1 black cross
g1 white circle
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh

In chess notation, the white rooks start on the a1 and h1 squares, and the black rooks start on the a8 and h8 squares.

The rook moves forward or back on the files through any number of squares without other pieces on them, and sideways on the ranks. This is shown in the diagram below. Like other pieces, it captures by going into the square on which an enemy piece stands.

The rook and king also take part in a special move called castling.

A chess castling move