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Tower

Historically called the
ROOK / TOWER / TORRE / TURRET

SIEGE TOWER / BELFRY TOWER
CHARIOT / RUKH / RUK

FORTIFIED CHARIOT
WAR CARRIAGE on ELEPHANT

WAR CARRIAGE
RECTOR / MARQUESS / WARDER
BOAT / SHIP

BERSERKER

CASTLE

The Tower - Slider - Value 7 - moves along an unobstructed path any number of squares horizontally or vertically.
 

  • GREAT CHESS optional power.
    The Tower may also retire his own Soldiers (Pawns) by moving to their square - and retiring them from the game.

 

The most controversial chess piece is the TOWER (ROOK) which was originally a CHARIOT (and still is in many parts of the world).  In pre and early medieval times, the  RUKH / RUK / ROK (ROOK) in Shatranj Chess, symbolized a Persian war chariot which was heavily armoured and carried a driver and at least one ranged-weapon bearer, such as an archer or spearman. At times the sides of the chariot were built to resemble fortified walls, giving the impression of small, mobile buildings, causing terror on the battlefield.

 

As the medieval era drew to a close, war chariots had disappeared, but siege and belfry towers were still in use. The first appearance in chess of the TOWER to replace the CHARIOT was possibly a representation of an Assyrian Seige Tower, or a poorly made chess piece of an armoured chariot which had lost it's horses and wheels in the translation. The piece assumed the name 'TOWER' in most parts of the world - and in some English speaking parts of the world - the name 'ROOK', the English spelling of RUKH.

 

A TOWER label makes total sense in chess, if you see the piece as a movable BELFRY / BELFRIE TOWER, a tall fighting enclosure in which SOLDIERS dominated large distances on the battle field, raining down projectiles from high with impunity, while being moved around in straight lines on the battle field. BELFRY TOWERS appeared on chess boards around the 8th - 10th centuries. Siege and Belfry Towers ceased to exist on the battlefield by the mid 1500's.

 

In 1849, the Staunton Chess pieces appeared in England and the designers, Nathaniel Cook and John Jaques, used the 'CASTLE' label for the TOWER instead of the more logical and historically correct BELFRY TOWER or the earlier CHARIOT (RUKH / RUK / ROK). The myopic public embraced the CASTLE theme, and the Staunton pieces, including the CASTLE / ROOK, became a  standard in some parts of the Western world. However most parts of Europe and the Eurasian countries still use the TOWER description.

 

The TOWER clearly moves in the way a BELFRY TOWER would move, not a CASTLE. To my knowledge, nobody in the history of the world, has ever managed to move a castle around the countryside in the middle of a battle.

Cook and Jaques also curiously made their TOWER/CASTLE the smallest of the power pieces, when it is the most powerful piece apart from the QUEEN, and historically had been one of the larger pieces on the board. If Cook and Jaques were still with us, they would have a lot of explaining to do.

In 1900, the British Chess Company (BCC 1891-1907) issued the new Royal Chessmen Imperial Mark 2 set or “Improved Staunton”. One of the distinguishing features was that the BCC owner and designer, William Moffatt, turned away from the customary approach of making the pieces linearly smaller starting from the king. The British Chess Company rather pursued the approach of aligning the size of the pieces with their playing value, which led to a clear enlargement of the rooks to signal their higher playing value compared to the knights and bishops.

Chess2100 Tower.jpg
Chess2100 Tower Move.png
The ROOK - RUKH.
Is it a CHARIOT or BERSERKER or ELEPHANT or TOWER
The RUKH's transformation from CHARIOT to TOWER
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