Rook (chess)

A rook (from Persian رخ "rokh") is a piece in the board game of chess. It gets its name from its name in the old Indo-Arabic game (see History of chess). Each player starts the game with two rooks. When recording games, it is shortened to R, and when printed a figurine is used.
Starting place and moving.
In chess notation, the white rooks start on the "a1" and "h1" squares, and the black rooks start on the "a8" and "h8" squares. 
The rook moves forward or back on the files through any number of squares without other pieces on them, and sideways on the ranks. This is shown in the diagram below. Like other pieces, it captures by going into the square on which an enemy piece stands. 
The rook and king also take part in a special move called castling.