Rook endings tricks
It can be very tricky to evaluate rook endings on a chess board.
Sometimes the position looks totally won, but then the rook ending can end in a draw or even a loss.
Here's 10 rook ending tips from a pretty strong chess player (2200+ FIDE) :
- Activate your rook (often on the 7th or 2nd rank)
- Having an active rook is more important than defending a pawn forever
- Centralize your king
- The whole pawn chain is better when defended by 1 pawn
- More advanced pawns are better (not always)
- Exchange a pair of rooks when up in material
- Learn by heart most basic endgames like Lucena and Philidor
- A rook is better behind a passed pawn
- When you are down in material create counterplay by making a passed pawn on the side where you have equal material
- Understand for whom the pawn endgame is favourable in the case of a rook exchange
I want to share a few rook ending games where either "drawish" or "totally lost" turned into something else.
See also :
