In chess literature the rook is usually portrayed as a sort of clumsy oaf, lazy and sleepy. This is evidently because it dozes in its corner for a while. But, like Russian folk hero Ilya Muromets, who stayed at home for his first 33 years sitting on an oven, the rook transforms itself the moment it sees an open line in front of it. You mustn’t think that the rook exists only for a rook endgame. As Savielly Tartakower said, “between the opening and the endgame God created the middlegame.” When after castling short the pawns on the kingside are still in their initial positions, the king cautiously listens for salvos from the enemy batteries and, if shells start falling in direct proximity, orders one of its infantrymen to take a step forward, so that in the event of a check on the last rank it can safely change its command point.