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THE CRAZY ROOK Home | Traps | Openings | Endgames | Puzzles | Library | About me Most chess players are aware of the crazy rook phenomenon: the rook gives check each move, and cannot be captured because of stalemate. In atomic, it is a piece which either cages the enemy king, or is able to waste tempo. For instance, QQQr-Kk is a draw. Fortunately, four queens are sufficient (in general). Essentially, white are able to trade two (possibly one) of his queens for the rook. With this setup, the black's rook has four possible squares: g1, h5, e8, e1. If its on g1, then Q6f1 traps the rook. If its on h5 (as in the diagram), then Qbd5, if on e8, Qbe6. If its on e1, 1. Qcd5 Rc1 2. Qdc3 Rg1 3. Q6f1 traps the rook.  Black to move: if his king is not on h2, then the kings are disjoint. The following position actually happened in a live game, the computer had decided that it would be wonderful to join the kings and then break them apart after it has promoted a few more queens. But apparently, it isn't happening (black's rook moves back and forth from f7 to f8):  Spazer(C) - MoltenThinker, white to move. |
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