Rook

Lore & Background

In shatranj, the rook is called rukh, from the Persian word for chariot. The initial setup in shatranj was essentially the same as in modern chess, though the position of the white shah (king) was not fixed. The rook moves like the rook in modern chess. In early Indian chaturanga (c. 500–700), the king could be captured and this ended the game. Persian shatranj (c. 700–800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing check). Later the Persians added the additional rule that a king could not be moved into check or left in check, so the king could not be captured, and checkmate was the only decisive way of ending a game. Over the following centuries, chess became popular in Europe, eventually giving rise to modern chess.

In Their Own Story

During the reign of the later Sassanid king Khosrau I (531–579), a gift from an Indian king included a chess game with sixteen pieces of emerald and sixteen of ruby (green vs. red). The game came with a challenge which was successfully resolved by Khosrau's courtiers. This incident, originally referred to in the Mâdayân î chatrang (c. 620 AD), is also mentioned in Ferdowsi's Shahnama (c. 1010). The Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan refers to Ardashir I as a master of the game: "By the help of Providence, Ardeshir became more victorious and warlike than all, on the polo and the riding-ground, at Chatrang and Vine-Artakhshir, and in several other arts."

Reader's Guide

In shatranj, the rook moves like the rook in modern chess. Castling was not allowed (it was invented much later). Stalemating the opposing king resulted in a win for the player delivering stalemate. Capturing all one's opponent's pieces apart from the king (baring the king) was a win, unless the opponent could capture the last piece on their next move, which was considered a draw in most places in the Islamic world (except for Medina, where it was a win). The possible movements of the main shatranj pieces, excluding that of the king and pawn, are complementary to one another, and without any omission or redundancy occupy all available squares with respect to the central position of a 5x5 grid.

Did You Know?

• The Persian word shatranj ultimately derives from Sanskrit caturaṅga (catuḥ: 'four'; anga: 'arm'), referring to the game Chaturanga.
• In Middle Persian the word appears as chatrang, with the 'u' lost due to syncope and the 'a' lost to apocope.
• The earliest listing of works on chess is in the Fihrist, a general bibliography produced in 377 AH (988 AD) by Ibn al-Nadim.
• Al-Adli as well as As-Suli introduced classifications of players by their playing strength, specifying five classes of players.
• The rook is called either the haathi (elephant) or quila (castle) in the pre-modern game in North India.