King + Rook vs King

What's the best way to win such an endgame? Could I have done this more efficiently?

Thanks

Defintely could be improved. I drilled my kids on KR v K and KQ v K and insisted they do it at near perfection.

If you are retreating your King, something is wrong. If you are pushing the King to the center, you are doing something wrong. Push to edge then mate is simple.

Move 56, Why not Rf5 pushing him toward the 8th-rank instead of your pushing him up to the 1st rank?

Move 62, play Kd4

Move 64, play Rc4

Please review http://www.chess.com/article/view/basic-checkmates-king-and-rook-mate

Once you are more advanced, practice with an endgame tablebase here: http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en

Hope that helps.

MUCH more efficiently.

According to Nalimov( http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en ) mate in 12

I should also note that it is important to learn the basic mates efficiently. They teach good habits and how best to maximize the coordination of your pieces.

I get very frustrated when chess teachers teach the "move the Queen a Knight's move away" technique. I feel it teaches formulas and not critical thinking. One should be able to get an elementary mate within maybe 2-3 moves of theoretical best consistently otherwise, one must continue to study it.

Some things to remember in R vs lone King:

This pattern forces the opposing king to retreat, for every rank (or file) you have to achiece this pattern:

I was trying the "Knight's move" technique from a Chess Mentor course I did not that long ago (though it may have been with the Queen, not the Rook).

NM ChessNetwork teaches a different technique.

Thanks for the advice.

This is the line suggested by the computer:

I see Black gets into a good position much more quickly than I did.

Am I right to continue like this?:

Thanks

No, in the last diagram:

I can tell you right now that's what your doing wrong. You are trying to figure it out for yourself, but keep being interupted trying to remember something you read in some acticle or book somewhere. . This disrupts the learning process.

Break our your own set, and play this endgame against yourself a couple times. Just figuring it out on your own is the surest way to make sure you will understand it in & out, and never forget it.

...and here's an online engine (crafty) for you to practice: http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-training/king-and-rook-checkmate.php

refresh the page to get a new position

Best advice for an overkill mate like this came from Silman for me - make an ever shrinking box with your rook and queen, then slowly push the king onto a side and trap him there with your rook on the 2nd/7th rank b/g file. Then move your king in for the kill.

I agree with roi_g11's post, this is the simplest method. 

Whichever technique you choose, learn it by rote. Same for 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, Q & K  etc. You should practice those until they are second nature. BTW those lessons are on this site.

could've improved alot