24 ... h5

or, if it turns out to matter whether White can get a rook to the back rank that's protected by the f6 queen, then

24 ... Bd5
25 Bxd5 exd5
26 Rc1 h5

Black threatens 25... Qxf6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZa2...

Whisper it quietly ... rooks secretly want to be knights.

Sure, sure, we all know that rooks have this macho roughty toughty image. Everything is straight lines. North-South or East-West with none of this namby pamby diagonal nonsense.

But the shameful truth about rooks is that they would dearly love to turn corners. They have this hidden fondness for the knight's "two forwards and one sideways" hop. It seems so free and airy ... not like the rugged armour and clothes that rooks normally have to wear.

Don't believe me? Then take a look at this position, just after black has played 17...Rg6.

click for larger view

The Rd1 has slid along the back rank, but what he really wants to do is to swerve - swerve like a bird! So he plays 18. Rd3 intending Rg3 or Rh3. That's a knight-like tour of h1-f1-d1-d3-g3 (or h3). Be still my giddy heart!

Fast forward to the position after 23...Rg8

click for larger view

The black rooks are clearly not having a happy time. They can't turn corners easily. Instead they are forced into the stereotypical g file stuff. Boooring!

Now white piles on the pressure with another rook-knight wannabe - 24. Rd1!

The text books would say that this rook is grabbing the open file. Pah! What do they know? He really wants to liberate his inner girly by turning a few corners. This rook dreams of Rd8 <and then turning through 90 degrees to attack g8>. Rd1 isn't a straight line move. It's a part of a curve, a super swerve from a1 to g8 by way of the d file.

And then our final POTD position. After 25. Qxg7+ Rxg7 26. Rd8+ Rg8 we get to here:

click for larger view

From here you might think that there are two equal routes to mate. Either rook can capture on g8 to give mate.

Not so! 27. Rdxg8 would be plain and boring. A linear mate, all on the same line. It works, true, but only in the way that a pair of jeans work. Functional, staid, plain.

What the position calls out for is another swerve, a little scrap of lace. 27. Rgxg8# is the way to go - allowing the second rook to turn a corner.

Its funny how at times rooks are harried mercilessly by hungry enemy Bishops & Knights; yet at other times they move with blissful ease and powerful effect

Don't believe me? Then take a look at this position, just after black has played 17...Rg6.>

"The Silicon chip inside my head won't switch to overload,

All I have to do is sacrifice my Queen and away I go..."

I do wonder though. 18. Nxe6 may be the line that silicon likes but a human would probably worry about the weaknesses that white is leaving in his own position, especially f2 and g2. With those vicious looking black bishops on adjacent diagonals, I think I'd like to keep the centre fairly closed and shuttle rooks across to the kingside.

Now there's a pin ya gotta love!

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