Fighting in Rook Endgames

Introduction

Hello again! Well, if you didn't know, the rook is my favorite chess piece. And I especially love playing endgames with them.

Rook endgames are the most common endgames in chess, and more often than not, they end in a draw. One must study any endgame very intricately, or it will inevitably lead to you losing. 

Today on Hornet Reports, we will be exploring some rook endgames. We will delve into some endgame positions where we may have to win, or where we may have to draw. Either way, it will be an interesting ride! Put on your thinking caps everybody.

Some of us may not be the best at endgames, (shame on you ) but I hope you will take the time to read this (you better ) and hopefully improve your play!

Theoretical Endgames

Winning the Endgame

For a study, you need a theoretical position to theorize over. To get myself warmed up, we are using chess.com's rook endgame exercise. 

Working your way up on different difficulty levels is a good way to improve! I would highly recommend this for beginners. A very easy endgame here with two extra pawns. All I had to do was evade his sneaky rook checks, promote, and checkmate. 

Whilst it did take me a little bit to checkmate the computer, (mostly because I am not really good at chess ) I got the job done. 

Drawing the Endgame

Drawing in a rook endgame is much more common and easier than winning. Since drawing is pretty broad, I did two exercises: One of them was chess.com's and another was one I found on the internet.

This first drawing exercise was very simple. The key to succeeding in this was unequivocable patience. All I had to do was make sure black's pawn didn't advance and make sure my rook was correctly positioned on the back rank. 

Any aggressive moves like going for his pawn or trying to check his king would have resulted in his win. 

Exercise Two

This exercise was just a random chess workout I found on the internet. It was a fun and a bit challenging endgame to complete, lets dig in.

For this workout, it's a rook and a bishop vs a queen. Endgame workouts are usually long and arduous, but this took it to a new level. It was a constant series of staying out of check and making sure my pieces were protected. 

The exercise got to a point where I was nearly ready to give up, but the 50-move rule finally kicked in, and I was liberated! I will never do that one again lol

Fighting in Real Rook Endgames

Obviously, those exercises I did were fairly easy. Watching a chess game unfold between a human and a computer is lame so...

Let's see how a rook endgame went down in a real-life chess game!

Our real-life example is taken from a game played between two unknown players. We pick up on the 31st move.

Rather than talking about the whole game excerpt, let's focus on what I gathered were the two takeaways.

1. King Centralization

In the game above both players made their kings useful, black just used it better. Once you have reached the endgame phase of the game, your king must me launched.

A mistake many beginners make is leaving their king on the back rank and relying on other pieces to finish the job themselves. Kings are very good to have active in endgames, and that is what black did by not just keeping the opposition, but also keeping his king centralized.

2. NOT being in a rush

While black did have an advantage and could have charged his pawn army down the board, he played passively. Chess is not intended to be a rushed game, and especially when it comes to the endgame, you need to not be in a hurry to win.

By slowly bringing his pawns down the board, black slowly squeezed his opponent. It came to a point where white had no choice but to tip the king. 

The "Advice from other people" part of the blog

Hornet: What is your advice for playing in close endgames?

"There is a near infinite number of possible endgames, but there will be a few themes that you will have to learn the thrive in those positions." - @Rodgy

"I would study them thoroughly and seriously. With all the help out there on the Internet, I'm sure there's a lot of learning material that you can learn from. I'm no endgame expert nor a teacher but learn the basic ideas of some endgames and you'll win some tight endgames." - @ryanchen100

"I would say stay solid and don't let them get to you. Try to set traps so that they can blunder. - @hiryanli

"Just take your time; if you have a lot of time then triple check ever move, since you won't be able to use the time in a later phase of the game.

 Also watch the positioning of your pieces to see if they could be forked, skewered, or pinned by an enemy piece on a certain square. - @DonRajesh

Conclusion

Did you improve on your endgames after reading this blog? I hope so! DISCLAIMER: Reading this blog won't magically make you win every endgame. 

No one ever hits the bullseye on every attempt (unless you're Hans Niemann of course ). Just keep practicing! If we have learned three things about endgames today, those three things are:

1. Be Patient! 

2. Don't be aggressive!

3. Keep your King active!

Thanks for reading this blog! Also, a very special thanks to @Rodgy, @ryanchen100, @DonRajesh and @hiryanli!

If you liked this blog post, I would really appreciate if you followed me and/or gave me some feedback in the comments!

- @FA-18_SuperHornet2007