Why is the castle called a Rook?

 You realize no one younger than about 45 is likely to get that joke. Which counts me in, but nearly everyone else out.

Nice bump there, I can see a post I made more than 2 years ago now.

the piece in greek is officially called "πύργος" (piryos) meaning tower. Beginners often call it a κάστρο (castro) meaning castle. The castling move is called ροκέ (roke) with the word probably coming from rook... So THREE different names...

Actually I'm 37, and Dutch, and I get it! (because of Zappa's _Broadway the Hard Way_)

a rook used to be a chariot, in fact, rook is borrowed from another language, it means chariot, also, check mate means the king is dead 

no  

Ubik42 wrote:

Cystem_Phailure wrote:

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

 You realize no one younger than about 45 is likely to get that joke. Which counts me in, but nearly everyone else out.

I am a lot younger than 45, yet I still get that one!

A rook (♖ ♜ borrowed from Persian رخ rokh, Sanskrit रथ rath, "chariot") is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the tower, marquess, rector, and comes (Sunnucks 1970). The term castle is considered informal, incorrect, or old-fashioned.

So much history behind the complex game of chess. If one gets fed up of searching for the origin of man, search for the origin of chess... It's far more perplexing!

Both words are Turkish. ;) Veža, tverdjava, zamak, ladja, tura and their cognates would be the Slavic ones. Anyway, I also find the discrepancy annoying. You "castle" with a "rook", but you perform a "rokade" with a "toren". Spare me the elitist "it's official and you are ignorant" line. The names makes no sense.

Interestingly enough, in most languages, the word for rook translates literally as "tower". The bishop is typically a "runner" or "messenger", not a religious figure at all. As near as I can tell, the knight has about a 50-50 chance of being either the steed or the rider. Pawns are almost universally peons (farmers), except for a few languages in which they are soldiers.

This link shows the names of chess pieces in 74 languages. My favorite? Right at the end: Japanese. Chess was obviously introduced to Japan by English speakers, and the locals didn't feel inclined to get original.

http://www.shakki.net/kerhot/KemTS/nap-pieces.htm#T

okay, so castle is not legal?

Castle is not correct.

Actually Castle is the original term for this piece. Rook was only brought into the game later on. So he was right to believe it's the correct term. Some consider it "old-fashioned" but the fact remains. Castle is the original term

Originally, the rook symbolized a chariot. The Persian word rokh means chariot, and the corresponding pieces in Oriental chess games such as xiangqi and shogi have names meaning chariot. Persian War Chariots were heavily armoured, carrying a driver and at least one ranged-weapon bearer, such as an archer. The sides of the chariot were built to resemble fortified stone work, giving the impression of small, mobile buildings, causing terror on the battlefield. However, in the West, the rook is almost universally represented as a crenellated turret. One possible explanation is that when the game was imported to Italy, the Persian rokh became the Italian word rocca, meaning fortress. Another possible explanation is that rooks represent siege towers (the piece is called "torre", meaning tower, in italian, portuguese and spanish). Rooks usually are similar in appearance to small castles, and as a result, a rook is sometimes called a "castle", usually by non-players and those new to the game. This usage was common in the past ("The Rook, or Castle, is next in power to the Queen" —Howard Staunton, 1847) but today it is rarely, if ever, used in the literature or among players, except in reference to castling. (Here, "castle" is a verb referring to a move, not a noun referring to a piece.)

Non of this makes any sense. First time start off newer players might call it Castle but that's it's original name. Rook was later brought into the mix but to prevent the tldr you can look it up yourself. You claim the word Castle is a verb but it's not. People live in a castle it's a noun. So if the original name of the word rook means chariot what does that have anything to do with a castle? Which just looking at the piece anyone could see. That's exactly what it is. A corner of a castle. Look into why rook was originally brought into chess later on after the invention of the game. It's a modern term calling it a rook so if anyone is the new players it's all of us including you.

All you have to do is look up the word castle in a dictionary to discover you're wrong. Example:

1. make a special move (no more than once in a game by each player) in which the king is transferred from its original square two squares along the back rank toward a rook on its corner square which is then transferred to the square passed over by the king.

   "both of the players castled on the queenside"

In french bishop is "fou" which can mean mad, crazy but also "court jester" or "king's fool" when used with "du roi". Kinda similar to "bouffon".
Much better name than bishop, imo
Rook is "tour" (tower in english) which also makes much more sense.
Knight is cavalier (rider/horseman).

I don't remember which language it is, but I think in one of the books I have it was at one time called a rukh, which in the book was translated as guardian. It kind of makes sense as the move of castling puts the king in a safe position with his guardian beside him. Also notice that in the Isle of Lewis chess set, it is not a tower, but a warrior. I don't know how accurate the book was, but it seems reasonable to me.