However, rooks in themselves are not drawish pieces, eg rooks in the middlegame are often necessary in mating attacks.
Add a pair of rooks to an ending of opposite-coloured bishops and what would otherwise be a dead draw can give winning chances.
But, as a rule, it is probably fair to say the defending side in an ending should generally strive to keep rooks on the board.
If I had thought of this it would have helped me in my game from round six of the Bodensee Senioren.
The following position was reached after 23.Ra6-a1.
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| White has much the better bishop, but Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1 give White at best an edge of 0.1 |
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However 23...Kc6? allowed White to exchange rooks, after which Black is probably lost, or at least faces a long and very difficult struggle to hold the half-point (I failed to do so).
LESSON; there are exceptions (there nearly always are in chess), but rooks in an ending are often a defender's best friend.
I'm not convinced the principle here is so much to keep rooks on the board. It's more to avoid exchanging (any) pieces off that will leave Black in an ending with a bad bishop against a good bishop.
ReplyDeleteYes, I guess that may be a better way of expressing it, although in practice it is often rooks that stay on the board longest, certainly on average.
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