Speed needs open lines
The chariot is pure straight-line speed — and speed is worth nothing on a blocked road. It slides any distance along open files and ranks, so its whole life is about lines: open them, own them, and never let your own pawns jam them without a plan. Before every chariot capture, check two things — is the road clear, and is the target defended? Black's horse on a5 sits loose on a fully open a-file: one clean slide collects an entire horse.