No Hokey Here!

Every good chess player’s wife knows the symptoms.  When they disappear to rifle through the medicine cabinet for the bottle marked rook endings.  When the rose has been picked free of thorns but there is still sting in the position.  Antidote, oh precious drip!  Blue pill or red, the result is often the same.

It has vexed many a chess player knowing that ancient remedies lurk in the weeds of innocuous positions.  Thus we arrive here, with 30 seconds to go in a rapid game, played with the sole intention of untangling myself from an evening sending recruiting messages for Team Canada, only to tangle myself later into this article.

If Newton took a break under the apple tree to devise a law of thermodynamics as it applies to chess, it would certainly be that all rook endings are drawn. 

There’s a bit of heat left in this position.  Instead of the ding going off on the oven to declare a fully baked point for white, the position slips into a stasis where Black can put the icing on the result.

In the diagram position twas time for the Kings to swim (Black’s to d6 closer to the queening square), but instead the rook rolls along the seventh shoal and suddenly the jaws of defeat emerge on f7. 

Hurriedly the alert White king should cast his line, but instead loosens the fenders on his own citadel, a fusillade swishing in with a cumbersome check.  The jaws of victory yawn on f7.   A fisherman must fish, so must the king.   Re5+?  This rook move casts a ripple over the position.  Now the apple lands on Tartakower’s head.  The winning line sinks below the surface, not to resurface.

In the dance of rook endings, you put your left foot out, you put your right foot out, and shake it all about.  That’s what it’s all about – meaning you must know when it’s time to move the king, rook or pawn respectively, and not be caught flat footed.

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Note this rapid game came during a break in action recruiting for the big Team U.S.A.-Team Canada match on chess.com.  The last time these two teams met in the World League was January 2023.  I played Board #52 for the red and white, and as fate would have it, I ended up on the same board as we renewed acquaintances in July 2025.

My opponent was very nearly again @jcohen42 (see Boards #51), whom I did end up playing in a 2024 USTCL match-up between Ontario and Pennsylvania.  Us chessplayers do tend to cross paths!

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/team-canada/1453537/games?p=1

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/team-canada/1810876/games?p=1

Speaking of @jcohen42, I hope he won’t mind me sharing this most astounding result from our mini-match.  A rook and bishop ending where the bishop somehow outsmarted the rook!  The other game was a draw.

37. Re2 (Rxc6! Kxc6 38. h5 a4 39. hxg6 a3 40. Kc3!! is mate in 12) f4 38. Kc4? f3 39. Rd2 Ke5! 40. Kc5? (h5! holds) Be4! 41. Kb5 Kf4 42. Kxa5 Kg3 43. Kb4 f2 44. Rd1 Kg2 45. Kc3 f1+Q 46. Rxf1 Kxf1 47. Kd4 Bf3 48. Ke3 Bh5 49. Kf4 Kg2 White resigns