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
Richard Griffith (chess player) Richard Griffith (chess player) Richard Clewin Griffith (22 July 1872 in London – 11 December 1955 in Hendon, London) was an English chess player, author and editor. He was educated at Charterhouse School. He won the British Chess Championship in 1912 at Richmond, at his only appearance in the event. Also in 1912, he was the original co-author with John Herbert White of the famous chess book, "Modern Chess Openings", which has gone into many editions up to the present day. He was the editor of the "British Chess Magazine" from 1920 to 1937, and again for some months in