Rook + King vs. King
Submitted by
turkey_12345act on Sun, 06/21/2009 at 5:19pm.
As I was buzzing around the forums, spreading useless and, in some very rare cases, useful information, I noticed several members of the community expressing their belief that a King + Rook vs. King Endgame is a difficult checkmate. That really shouldn't be, so I'm going to try to help in whatever way a not-so-great player like me can.
Please note: I am NOT a GM. I am NOT always right. While this article will explain how to achieve checkmate with a King and Rook, it MAY not demonstrate the quickest and most efficient ways.
First of all, in my opinion, the most important thing to remember in this type of endgame is to use the rook to restrict your opponent's king's movement. What do I mean?
But what from there? Well, always remember to get the opposition. This means that the black and white kings are lined up, to white's benefit. Because white has the opposition, white's king covers the three squares black's king could move to if the rook gives check. The opposition is key to achieving checkmate in this endgame - in all cases, the white king must be directly lined up with the black king.
Another zugzwang that would be good to learn and remember is:
Those are the most efficient methods of checkmate in this endgame
that I know of. Please, refrain from sending your hate mail.
If I got something wrong here, please tell me in the comments!!! This way I can change it and I won't mislead readers. I hope that you learned
something from this article. Thanks for reading!
P.S. Feel free to rate it with those stars. That is, unless you would rate it less than three stars. =D
| 1766 reads | 11 comments |
3 votes: