Chess Club: Rooks & Queens
Game Night Next Game Night is Friday November 13th. 7:00-11:00pm Thompson Hall 2nd floor
Monthly club tournament at the Game Night.
Plan on attending, because we want a good turn-out Rooks & Queens: for the Chess Tournament. The Major Pieces
November 2, 2015
Rook Moves Queen Moves The Rook can move any number of spaces along a rank or The Queen can move any number of spaces in any file. direction, including diagonal. So the Queen can move like a Bishop or a Rook.
Relative Value Checkmate Queens and Rooks are often called the major pieces. Rooks and Queens are powerful in the endgame. A Rook is worth 5 pawns. A Queen is worth 9 pawns. Two-Rook Checkmate Two-Rook Checkmate You can checkmate with 2 Rooks (or Rook+Queen) if you control you control your opponent's 2 back rows.
Back Rank Checkmate You can checkmate with a single Rook (or Queen) if the King is locked into a single row.
Back Rook Checkmate
1 Chess Club: Rooks & Queens
Castling Castling Dont's If the King and a Rook have not been moved yet and there are no You may NOT castle if... pieces in between, you may castle 1. Your king has been moved earlier in the game. them. 2. The rook that castles has been moved earlier in the game. 3. There are pieces standing between your king and rook. The King moves 2 spaces left or 4. The king is in check. right. 5. The king moves through a square that is attacked by a The nearest Rook then jumps over piece of the opponent. the King to the adjacent square. "queenside castle" "kingside castle" 6. The king would be in check after castling. or or We call the 2 types of castling "castling long" "castling short" "One may not castle out of, through, or into check." kingside (short) or queenside (long). -Kaiser Wilhelm II
Castling Example 1 Castling Example 2 In this picture, can White In the 1960 game Averbakh v. kingside castle? Purdy, Purdy (black) made a No , the Black Queen controls g1. questionable queenside castle.
Can White queenside castle? The White Rook controls b8. Is it Yes , even though the Rook on a1 legal for Black to castle? is under attack. We can castle when the Rook is Yes, the Rook passes over the in check, but not when the King attacked square but not the King. is in check.
Castling Etiquette Activity: Your Move Get used to moving the King first, then the Rook. Daily puzzle asks for best move: This order is required by older tournament rules. If you www.shredderchess.com accidentally touch the Rook first, you must move the Rook without castling. Here is the board from a famous championship game Feuer v. O'Kelly. Use only one hand when you castle. O'Kelly (Black) moved his Rook far forward to capture the pawn on b2. Castling kingside is slightly safer, since it moves the King closer to the edge. What is the best move for White? It is common for both players to castle kingside. Castle queenside. This puts Black King in check and If one player castles kingside and the other queenside, this allows White to capture the Black Rook. is called opposite castling.
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