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Bishops and rooks are natural enemies. One moves diagonally, and the other orthogonally. This means that when a bishop attacks a rook, or a rook attacks a bishop, the defending piece cannot directly attack back. Historically, the rook represents a chariot on the battlefield – so it moves quickly along the straights, but cannot easily turn and can get blocked in. In practice, because of how the other pieces move, it also means that bishops are often more powerful earlier in the game, while rooks are more commanding later in the game when there are fewer pieces on the board. This means that in the earlier part of the game, bishops are potential rook assassins, as we shall see in this game of the Ruy Lopez!

Both my opponent and I were quite equal throughout the opening and earlier part of the middle game. Unfortunately, my opponent missed a bishop fork against their king and rook, and then frazzled by the loss, didn’t see that their other rook was also on a diagonal now controlled by the bishop. In three moves, my bishop captured 13 points of material, pretty much ending the match. I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/38036393481

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.02.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "LUNA1963"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C65"]
[WhiteElo "1221"]
[BlackElo "1263"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "21:31:58 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 Bd6 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Qxf6 gxf6 11. Nd2 O-O-O 12. O-O Rhg8 13. Nf3 c5 14. c4 a6 15. Nh4 Bf8 16. Nf5 Rxd3 17. Ne3 Rd2 18. b3 Rd4 19. f3 h5 20. Rfd1 Bh6 21. Rxd4 Bxe3+ 22. Kh1 Bxd4 23. Kh2 Bxa1 0-1