Chess Set Pieces: The Story Of The Rook

The 'Castle' or 'Rook' has been one of the chess set pieces since the earliest records of the game some 1500 years ago during the Gupta Empire in India.

 

The game was called Chaturanga (in Sanskrit) and the rook was first known as 'rukh' in Arabic.

 

Initially the rook was shown as a war carriage, which was an important constituent in the ancient Indian army. This representation of the rook chess set pieces was retained when the game was taken up in Arabia. The Arab name for this piece and the later Oriental names of 'xiangqi' and 'shoji' all mean 'chariot.'

 

The reason for the modern rook being universally shown as a turret is interesting. The war chariots in Persia were armored with a driver and an archer and were often designed to look like a turreted building to add to the impact on the battlefield.

 

In 1527 Vida, the Bishop of Albay (now in the Philippines), wrote a poem about chess and represented the rook with fortified platforms on the back of elephants. As the game moved westwards and elephants were less known, the rook chess set pieces dropped the elephant and just showed a crenellated fortification.

 

The rook became wholly connected to the idea of a tower as time progressed. Indeed, it is known as 'torre' in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, 'toren' in Dutch, 'turm' in German and 'tour' in French: all meaning 'tower.' In English of course the piece is also known as the 'castle.'

 

Such an ancient game as chess was bound to have a fascinating history and the history of chess set pieces is also as interesting. Next time you play a game of chess, you might reflect on how the pieces developed.

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