Chess Patterns ❯ Tactical Patterns | Sacrifices ❯ Rook Sacrifice
Rook Sacrifice
Rook Sacrifice
A Rook Sacrifice is a deliberate move where you offer a Rook to your opponent. The first diagram above shows a tactical Rook sacrifice (calculation-based, risk-free, leading to immediate advantages like checkmate or gain of material): 1.Rxf6 gxf6 2.Qxf6+ Kg8 3.Qxd8+.
The second diagram above (Kramnik vs. Harikrishna, 2017) shows a long-term, intuition-based positional sacrifice: 1.Rxe5 sacrifices the Rook to gain powerful piece activity against the exposed black King.
Designed with Love in Italy
Designed with Love in Italy
These chess icons are our indie studio's tribute to chess lovers around the world. A way of making chess more visual and fun. You can use the icons for free in publicly accessible content, simply by crediting us (see our Licensing Policy). Each icon is paired with examples and numbered insights to help you pick up ideas quickly and talk about chess with confidence. You can get the cards here.



Master the Rook Sacrifice
When we started adding a playful touch to chess learning, we looked through thousands of videos and hundreds of books to find the best resources out there. Here's our curated selection of the best content we encountered on Rook Sacrifices. We also included some smaller creators who are growing fast and we believe deserve your attention. Check out these resources if you want to master this type of sacrifice.
-
Stay calm when sacrificing your Rook
A slow-paced introduction of Rook sacs based on several example games carefully selected by Chessfactor.
-
My GM Boyfriend Sacrificed THE ROOK Blindfolded!
An entertaining video by Alessia Santeramo where her boyfriend plays blindfolded against her and manages to win by sacrificing a Rook!
-
GothamChess screaming THE ROOK compilation
Have fun with this great compilation of moments in which Levy sacrificed his Rook in his trademarked style!
-
How to Become a Deadly Chess Tactician*
A fun and instructive book by David LeMoir on tactical sacrifices structured around the concepts of motivation, imagination and calculation. Very enjoyable and useful.
-
This book is highly focused on tactics, Michael de la Maza proposes a unique and intensive training method focused on pattern recognition and visualization. Several exercises feature beautiful rook sacrifices. For highly motivated players only.