Chess coach Daniel Greiner presents the Samuel Bowden trick, where sacrificing a rook leads directly to checkmate.

This horned "rook" may be the world's oldest-known chess piece. (Credit: John Peter Oleson) In the game of chess, a rook can move as many spaces as it can in one direction.

The rook in question certainly wasn't the first chess piece ever created, but it may be the oldest found to date. John Peter Oleson Almost 30 years after its discovery, a small sandstone figurine ...

This, too, evaporated. The players agreed to a draw in the position below, as white’s knight and black’s rook were caught in an endless, repetitious dance.

(The word "rook" comes from "rukh," the Persian word for chariot.) If the tiny sandstone figure Oleson excavated is indeed a rook, it may be the single oldest chess piece ever discovered, dating ...