Rook (chess) Rook (chess) A rook (; ♖,♜) is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece (from Persian رخ "rokh"/"rukh") was called the "tower", "marquess", "rector", and "comes" . The term "castle" is considered informal, incorrect, or old-fashioned. Each player starts the game with two rooks, one on each of the corner squares on their own side of the board. The white rooks start on squares a1 and h1, while the black rooks start on a8 and h8. The rook moves horizontally or vertically, through any number of unoccupied squares (see diagram). As with captures by other
Almost Chess queen and chancellor having equal strengths. For example, bishops are stronger and knights are weaker. Betza commented that Almost Chess is a good introductory chess variant for players, due to its great similarity to standard chess and the naturalness of the change from queen to chancellor. Around 1994, Betza invented Sort of Almost Chess, a variation whereby one player owns a chancellor, and the opponent owns a queen. Betza considers the chances for both sides equal, even for advanced players, since the queen and chancellor have equal strengths. Sort of Almost Chess emerged from Betza's research on the values of