Is a rook on an open file a good piece?

27 Jun 20256,861 viewsEnglish (US)

Rooks on open files are not the full story when it comes to define whether a rook is well placed. In this post, I will share some examples of the nuances of a rook positioning.

Introduction

In this post, my aim will be to discuss the question in the title:

Is a rook on an open file a good piece?

At first glance, this might seem nonsensical and you might be thinking that the anwser is, of course, yes. However, there are some nuances that I would like to discuss, through some examples, and my hope is that, after going through the positions, you will have a better feeling for when a rook is, indeed, good on an open file, or not.

What is a good piece?

It would be difficult to talk about any piece and how they should be placed if we do not know what is a good piece.

A piece can be useful in two main different ways:

When it controls squares that the opponent needs to coordinate their efforts
When it attacks (and ideally takes) pawns (weaknesses)

These two point are absolutely critical. Many times, a piece is optically well placed but, because it does not achieve any of the two point above, it is quite useless. The same can apply to rooks.

The Rook

Rooks can be used for many things. Just as with all other pieces, they are better placed the more squares they control, and will obviously be better suited at any situation where control of a file or rank is needed. However, when deciding where to place a rook, it is not as simple as putting it on an open file. The decision if a rook belongs on a certain open file will come down to two main things, related to the two previous points: Whether the squares on the file are important for the opponent and whether the rook can infiltrate the opponent's position by occupying one of the squares in that file.

Examples

Sousa, A - Schenderowitsch, M, Menorca Open 2025

Black just took on c1. How should White recapture?

Lets try to consider the pros and cons of the available options. White has more space, so they want to keep pieces, which means that 27.Nxc1 looks preferable from this perspective. However, taking with the knight gives up the open file... Which one is best, after all?

Well, if we pay attention to the aforementioned rules, we will correctly choose 27.Nxc1!, as we will understand that the open files does not matter at all, as long as there are no entry squares. This means that there are basically no cons of taking with the knight, which makes the decision much simpler. I ended up winning the game quite comfortably.

Camello, A - Sousa, A, Galician League Honour Division 2024

Black to play. Who is better?

Black is much better, with a couple of different moves. The reason is simple - the only thing we could say White has to compensate for the worse structure and planless position is the heavily controlled c-file... but there are no entry squares so it is totally useless!

There is not much more to it - Black can improve however they want while White can only wait. In the game, I played 24...Kf8 which is totally fine, but more precise would be 24...a4 guaranteeing the break b5-b4 in the future. As expected, the c-file turned out to be totally useless, and I won the game.

Valles, M - Sousa, A ,Pontevedra Masters 2023

Should Black fight for the d-file with 21...Rad8 or play something else?

On the previous move, I had just played 20...Nc5 to which White responded 21.Qc2. Now, I had many options... But 21...Rad8 should not be one of them! After all, there is nothing going on on the d-file - the opponent controls it, but there is nothing to achieve there for them. However, for Black, there is a nice pawn on c4 to attack, which means that a move like 21...Rac8 will be best. Other moves like 21...Qb7 or 21...b5 are also good, trying to open a much better b-file for our rooks!

Harper, R - Sousa, A, Olympiad Budapest 2024

What should Black play to keep the advantage?

The correct answer is 23...Re8! seizing the open file. Here, the e-file is quite important, as there will be many weak squares in White's position to take advantage of. The game continued 24.Qf1 f5 25.Rd1

and here 25...Qd8! 26.Rh3 Rce7 secured Black a massive advantage. There is simply too much happening on the e-file. Eventually, the game reached this position

where Black can make use of the e-file control with the winning tactic 29...Nf2+ 30.Rxf2 Re1.

Exercises

It is easy to nod along and trick ourselves into thinking we understood the concept, but it is a different thing to apply it in practice. Here, I offer you a couple of positions for you to think by yourself. Try to find the best move in the position, if you want to win or retain winning chances. Feel free to write your solutions on the comments. I will post the solutions on the comments on this post before my next post, next week.