Why is it called a Rook.?
That's a fair question.
I wish I knew the answer.
Why is the castle called a Rook?
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The one on the left is called 'Fred' and the one on the right is called 'Jim'.
Fred and Jim were both well known for their dubious behaviour, including the taking of items that did not belong to them from the backs of lorries.
In colloquial terms, both Fred and Jim were known as 'crooks'.
'Rook' is a simple contraction of the colloquial term 'crook'.
This theory is backed-up by the fact that one can 'steal' a draw in rook endings, even if there is a slight material imbalance.
At one point in the history of the game, opposite coloured bishops were known as 'a pair of crooks' for the very same reason, but this got confusing very quickly and, after a fierce battle between calling them 'politicians' or 'bishops', they eventually got the name with which we are now familiar.
The queen was originally called 'a fearsome male warrior with some specific preferences'.
The king was 'just a tall bloke with a big ego'.
Neither of these names rolled off the tongue very well, so eventually they settled on the monosyllabic 'queen' and 'king'.
nice one.
reallly?
in FIDE standard it is called 'Rook' but when I played chessmaster (a com. game) against computer, my opponent's voice said "Castle King Side!"
that makes no sense :(
yes is does is mean you are castling (e.g. to castle) on the kingside 0-0 not on the queenside 0-0-0
I do believe its had something to do with simplicity (or ease of use). Rook = 1 syllable, castle, tower, etc = two or more syllables. Kinda like how ppl get nicknames. Say ur friends name is david... david is 2 syllables, dave is 1, thus ppl named david are often called dave. Just my thoughts...
monkey_bit, true what you are saying but on the other hand castle is to be asscoiated with castling not with the rook.
castle may have been a banned word
who cares a rook by any other name is still a tower or castle or that thing when capuring or back rank mating plenty of names does it matter
The rook is the official name. Call it a castle and you're just showing ignorance.
goldendog wrote:
and why is the horsey headed guy called a knight too??
Maybe because midieval knights rode horses...?
check out this article on wikipedia it has something to do with the sanskrit word rohk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_%28chess%29#History
In Slavic languages, the Rook can be called 'Top' (cannon) or 'Kula' (Tower).
Hmm-- if the 2 towery things are right next to one another, does that constitute a rookery? 
A long time ago, probably shortly after Watergate, Mad Magazine had an alternate chess set where the "tower" was called the Nixon. It stayed in the corner of the board by itself and repeated "I am not a rook. . . I am not a rook . . ." 
--Cystem
Rookery? I'm lost.
A rook (♖ ♜ borrowed from Persian رخ rokh, Sanskrit rath, "chariot") is a pieceboard game of chess. In the past the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes (Sunnucks 1970), and non-players still often call it a "castle". - Wiki