How the rook moves
Rooks move in straight lines along ranks and files. They are worth five pawns, they are the last pieces most players get into the game, and they are the reason an open file is worth fighting over.
- Moves in straight lines
- 14 squares anywhere
- Worth about 5
- Wants open files
A rook moves any number of empty squares along a rank or a file: up, down, left, right. It takes the first enemy piece on that line and it cannot jump over anything.
Fourteen squares, every time
A rook on d4 covers fourteen squares: the whole d-file and the whole fourth rank.
A rook is the same strength everywhere
Fourteen from the corner as well
The same rook in the corner. Still fourteen squares. Compare that with the knight, which drops from eight to two.
On an empty board a rook always sees fourteen squares, wherever it stands. That is unique, and it explains a lot about how rooks are played. They do not need to be centralised the way a knight does. What they need is a line with nothing on it.
Which is why rooks are usually the last pieces to be developed. They are already fine where they are, and moving them early does not achieve much until the pawns have cleared out of the way.
Open files, half-open files
An open file is a file with no pawns on it at all, and a rook on one hits everything up and down the board. A half-open file has one of your opponent's pawns on it and none of yours, which is nearly as good, because that pawn is now a target that cannot run away sideways.
"Put your rooks on open files" is the single most useful piece of middlegame advice there is. Doubling both rooks on the same open file makes a battery, and a battery on the seventh rank tends to end games.
Nothing to do yet
The rooks at the start of a game. Every line they own is stopped by their own pawns, which is why the a1 rook has nothing to do for the first ten moves and why castling exists.
Rooks and the back rank
A rook on an open file pointing at a castled king is the single commonest mating pattern in club chess, because a king behind three unmoved pawns has no escape square. That is the back rank mate, and the one move prevention is giving the king luft.
Black to move. A rook and a king with no air. Find the finish.
Show the answer
46.Qe2 46...Rb1+ 47.Qd1 47...Rxd1#
The line ends in checkmate. The position is from a real game on Lichess, rated 441 in their puzzle pool, and it is one of the positions in the Back Rank Mates skill in the trainer.
Rook endgames are their own subject
More endgames contain a rook than do not, and they behave very differently from anything else: an extra pawn is often not enough to win, the defending king wants to be in front of the pawn, and an active rook is worth more than a pawn on its own. Our rook endgame page has the positions to practise on.
Questions people ask
Can a rook move diagonally?
No. Rooks move only along ranks and files. The piece that moves diagonally is the bishop, and the queen does both, which is exactly why she is worth about as much as the two of them put together.
How many squares can a rook move?
As many as are empty in one straight direction, up to seven, and on an open board it always covers fourteen squares in total no matter where it is standing. Unlike knights and bishops, a rook loses nothing by being in the corner.
Is a rook worth more than a bishop?
Yes, by about two pawns. Winning a rook for a bishop or a knight is called winning the exchange, and it is a real advantage rather than a trivial one, although a good enough minor piece can be worth more than a bad rook.
Related
Rook sits under How the pieces move in the reference. Nearby:
- Seventh rankWhere a rook does the most damage
- BatteryTwo pieces stacked on the same line
- LuftAn escape square for a castled king
- Piece valuesWhat each piece is worth, and why
- Board setupWhich way round, and what goes where
- PawnForwards to move, diagonally to take
- KnightAn L shape, over anything in the way
- BishopDiagonals only, one colour forever