rooks are very powerful they just never get out til endgame -I sometimes wonder if a shogi rule could be added to chess;

- the ability to remove a pawn infront of a rook as a move, there are quite a few times for me that would be useful.

With 'square counting' they eclipse minor pieces, but its hard realising that. i regularly sac pawns to open up rooks, the posistion is worth more without the pawn infront of the rook!

What is the quickest mate with a Black King's Rook?

Here is a taster. You have to do better...and be quick before Swiss G. ambles along.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
What is the quickest mate with a Black King's Rook?

Here is a taster. You have to do better...and be quick before Swiss G. ambles along.

[pgn]
1. e3 h5 2. Ke2 Nf6 3. Kf3 Rh6 4. Kf4 d6 5. Kg5 e5 6. h4 Rg6[/pgn]

From games played on RHP this 7 mover with the a8 Rook has happened
quite a few times.

AThousandYoung (1246) hamid0001 (1259) RHP 2 ...[text shortened]... 6. Qxd8+ Rxd8 {Sometimes White plays 7.Bxc6+ here and then grabs the e5 pawn.}7. Nxe5 Rd1[/pgn]

5 moves is trivial as shown by:

I guess its all about the amount of squares a piece controls at any given time. Rooks are weak in the opening until they are connected and/or have open files to work along.

The knight is the most powerful guy in the starting position because it is not disrupted by the pawns.

Send payment for the lesson to hedonist c/o rhp.com. A tenner each should be enough🙂

- edit 🙂 was not worth postiong afterall 🙂 rooks are good.