Chess lessons › Chess strategy
Rooks on the seventh rank
Two rooks on the seventh eat pawns and shut the king in, but check your own back rank before you go.
The idea
Rooks on the seventh rank attack pawns and shut the king in.
- The rook on e7 already attacks the pawns on a7 and g7.
- The open c-file takes the other rook to c7.
- Two rooks on the seventh protect each other and eat the rank.
In a game: Before a rook goes to the seventh, check that your own back rank is safe.
How the lesson begins
In the lesson on open files, one rook reached the seventh rank and attacked the pawns there. Two rooks on the seventh are much stronger again. Players call them pigs on the seventh, because they eat everything on the rank.
This is Ignatz Kolisch against Adolf Anderssen, London 1861. White is a pawn down. One white rook already stands on e7, and the other has the open c-file.
Find the move
White to move. Put the second rook on the seventh rank.
A hint
The rook on c1 has an open file all the way to the seventh rank.
Show the answer
27. Rcc7
Rcc7 doubles the rooks on the seventh. Now they attack the pawns on a7 and g7, and they protect each other along the rank. It is the engine’s first choice.
In numbers
In the puzzle bank
1,545 puzzles in GreyChess’s bank practise it. Half of them are rated between 951 and 2,350.
The piece that makes the first move of the answer: rook 68%, pawn 21%, king 11%, in puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database.
Positions to practise
64 positions in the study, every result proved by the tablebase: 30 are wins, 29 draws and 5 losses for the side to move, with best play on both sides.