The ROOOOOK!

Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!

When we see a double exclamation mark, !!, assigned to some of our moves in postgame analysis, we get very excited. A !! move, aka a brilliant move, means that you played your game in style, maybe finding a clever trick to draw, or sacrificing a piece on the path to checkmate. Really, any great sacrifice will do the trick: from a knight to a queen. That said, there is something extra special about sacrificing the rook!

You might have heard of IM Levy Rozman, better known online as Gotham Chess, for his viral meme where he screams THE ROOOOOOOK! when he sacrifices the rook during an attack. Here's a clip! As the angry chess coach said at the start, we can't be sacrificing rooks all the time. We need to know when!

How can you spot such dazzling rook sacrifices that make you want to scream and share the move with everyone who would listen? The answer? Look at puzzles and games with sacrifices to train your mind to see the tactics. That’s exactly what we will do in today’s blog!

Rook sacrifices were known a long-long time ago, even before Gotham Chess first screamed THE ROOOOOOK! on his stream and the famous meme was created, even before Wilhelm Steinitz introduced modern chess theory, even before Ruy Lopez wrote his book on art of the game of chess.

The rook sacrifice is one of the oldest chess puzzles we have, known as the Dilaram Problem. There is a legend: once upon a time, there lived a prince who really liked playing chess. He played for fun and for money. He would bet a lot, risking everything just because he thought he could win against his opponents. Sadly for him, after a particularly bad chess streak, he lost his entire fortune. In desperation he bet his wife, Dilaram, on his next game. Playing as White, the poor prince had a pretty solid game, but probably he was not trained well on checkmating puzzles because he thought he was about to get checkmated (he should have looked at our previous puzzle blog!) This is the position they reached:

The Dilaram Problem

The prince thought he was lost here because Black threatened mate in one. He was about to resign, but Dilaram, spectating the game, exclaimed: "Oh, Prince, sacrifice your rooks, not your wife."

The prince decided to listen to his wife, and he won his game! Do you spot the tactic?

The solution is given like this (note this wasn’t chess in its modern form but Satranj, and the piece on h3 wasn’t a bishop but an Alfil, which can move two squares diagonally jumping over a piece (so in this puzzle, Bf5 is a legal move, jumping over the Knight):

Rh8+ Kxh8, Alfil to f5+ (Bf5) Kg8, Rh8+ (another rook sac!) Kxh8, g7+ Kg8, Nh6#!

Double rook sac!!!

In the position above, if it were modern chess, there is a quicker mate in 3 without any rook sacs, but we’ll let you find that one! Also, even with the Satranj rules, there is a forced mate without rook sacrifices, but Dilaram saw how to finish the game in style! Bravo!

Now we are bringing puzzles from our own games where we sacrificed THE ROOOOOOOK!  Try to solve as many as you can before we will walk you through each tactic.

The Legend Vivaan

Hey Friends! It’s The Legend Vivaan! I love sac-ing pieces! Here are a few I did from Rookly, the esports league we play in together in and recently won another national championship! Read more Rookly Recap Take Two! and Rookly: The Power of Friendship.

In this game, I reached this position out of the opening. Do you see the forced mates? If you read the intro, you might guess the first move is sacrificing the rook!

After Rxf6, Black has a couple options. If Ke7, Qxd6#, guarded by the rook on f6!

If gxf6, then Qxf6+, and the only move Black has is interposing the queen on f7, then Qxf7#!

My next example is a more positional fun rook sac I did playing as Black.

I played 8… Ne5!! as shown above. This allowed my opponent to take my rook on h2 with their king. Do you see why my position is much better after 9. Kxh2, even though materially I am down a rook?

What would you do after Kxh2? There are many good options for Black.

Nxc4 with the nice discovery check, picking up the bishop and much more soon, works; if you found that, very nice. There’s an even better move after Kxh2 though. Can you find it?

The even wilder option is Nfg4+!!  Back-to-back !! moves! How wild is that?! Note this wins the bishop on g5 with Qxg5 and has insane pressure and attack. I like this example of a rook sac because it’s not immediately leading to mate or winning material. Instead, it creates an amazing position with lots of good options to attack, even though you are temporarily giving up material.

Turning it over to my bro The Myth Sarang now.

The Myth Sarang

Hey! It’s me, The Myth Sarang! Today I will show a rook sac from one of my games in my grind to 2100 classical on Lichess, plus one GM game with a DOUBLE ROOK SAC! Here’s the position from my game:

I’m playing Black here, and I found a rook sac combo mate in 2! Can you find it?

It’s … Rc1+ deflecting away the bishop on e3: Bxc1.

Qe1# finishes the job.

Now let's move on to the grandmaster game, from the European Club Cup played in Durres, Albania in 2023. This is my favorite example of brilliant rook sacrifices! Black was super GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, and White was a 17-year old prodigy GM Daniel Dardha of Belgium, who recently set the world record of the most simul games played!

In this position, White just played 24. Nf3, to defend against the checkmate on h2. What did GM Shakhriyar do? He sacrificed…

THE ROOOOOOOK! Do you see how?

24... Re3!!

The idea is if fxe3, we have Nxe3 attacking the queen and checkmate on g2! So his opponent played 25. Rfe1. 

Now, Shakhriyar plays…

25… Rae8!!

...while the Rook on e3 is still hanging! What a brilliancy, doubling his rooks! Note Black is threatening Rxf3 with Qh2+ and Qh1# coming!

Daniel’s best try is to sacrifice his queen: 26. Qd3 Rxd3 27. exd3, to reach this position:

Then for the final blow, Shakhriyar sacrifices… 

THE OTHER ROOOOOOOK! 

26… Re3!!

Again! Daniel resigned. Do you see why?

If 27. fxe3, it’s 27. Qxg3+ and mating soon. If 27. Rxe3, it will be 27… Nxe3 28. fxe3, then 28…  Qxg3+ and White’s pieces are all lined up for the queen to capture!

Now let’s turn it over to The Man Benji for more brilliancies.

The Man Benji

Hello! The Man Benji here! Today, I will show three of my rook sacrifices: two online and one from an over-the-board tournament! Let's get started!

Here is my first example, from a rapid game played as White on chess.com

Earlier in the game, I found myself in a tricky situation and had to sacrifice a knight to keep my position manageable. My opponent moved their queen to a5 (13… Qa5), targeting my bishop and eyeing my rook on b4. I could play 14. Rxd4, but they can play 14… Qxa3, taking my bishop and keeping their extra piece.

But Black's decision to pressure my pieces before castling their king proved to be a decisive mistake.

If you look closer, my bishop, which is under attack, is looking at the same square my rook on e1 is eyeing. How can I make use of that, though? The answer…

14. Rxe7!! Sacrificing THE ROOOOOOOK!  14… Kxe7

15. Ra4! Discovered check and threatening the Black queen! (It’s important not to play 15. Rb5+, then they would play Qxa3, winning the bishop.)

15… Ke8 16. Rxa4,

And, being up a queen, I sailed smoothly to the win!

My next example comes from one of my recent classical games! It was the last round of a tough tournament, and I was hungry for a win. My mind was on attack-attack-attack. It helped that I was playing White, and that my opponent played a setup I was very familiar with.

Unlike the previous game I showed, here my opponent castled early, so I had to bring my pieces for an attack, but only the Black pawns were keeping the fort. In the position below, notice how my opponent’s g7 and h6 pawns are feeling the heat. Removing any one of them would be crucial. Can you spot the stunning rook sacrifice that clears the path for checkmate?

The move is… 21. Rf6!!

We are threatening to play 22. Rxh6, with checkmate coming up, and if Black plays 21… gxf6, White will finish the game with 22. Qxh6 checkmate!

My opponent responded with 21… Nh7, targeting my rook, but that’s fine because another rook sacrifice is incoming!

22. Rxg7!!

There are too many threats. If 22… Kxg7, 23. Qxh6 followed by Qxh7 checkmate. Soon, I won the game, but before we leave this one, there is another beautiful sideline:

If instead of 21… Nh7, Black played 21… Ng6, shown here:

Another rook sacrifice is coming, showing how to bring every single piece into the attack:

22. Rgxg6!!

After 22… fxg7, White plays 23. Rf8+, Black has to respond with 23… Kh7, and now, in this position, try to find the prettiest move out of the whole sequence:

The answer is the easily overlooked 24. Nf3!!, and there’s no way to stop Ng5 checkmate! Notice how Black can’t take our queen with gxh5 because that pawn is pinned by our bishop on d3!

Sacrificing the rook is not always for brilliant wins. Sometimes, you need to do it to escape a completely losing position so you can walk away with a half point. This is where the stalemate comes into play. A stalemate happens when none of your pieces and pawns have legal squares to move to. Oftentimes, your opponent, sensing the sure win, is too careless, eager to checkmate you, and walks into your stalemate trap. That’s why chess coaches tell us to never give up and look for tricks and traps!

I was in such situation recently in my online game. Sad to share this, but here was my position, where I, playing as White, was down a million pieces. It looks like I should resign, but this is actually a draw, because I have one last trick for a stalemate. Can you find it?

White can draw by stalemate!

Black’s mistake was to promote their b-pawn into a queen (a rook would have done it!), because that left my king with no squares.

Rxf7!!, and if Kxf7, that’s stalemate!

Black can try dodging the checks, but that sneaky White rook will always follow that king, and if White plays all the correct checks, it will eventually be a draw!

Watch these videos by content creator IM Eric Rosen if you want to learn more about the art of stalemating. Here's one to get you started.

We hope you enjoyed these puzzles, learned something, sharpened your tactical vision and most importantly had fun! Until next time!

Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!

The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivaan