Endings to Know: More Rook Endings-Part 2
Today i'll be continuing rook endings with an outside passed pawn, this time covering some examples with the defenders rook behind the pawn. An important thing to know about these endings is a passsed rook pawn combined with a knight (or rook) pawn on the other side do not win (other pawns do because they force the king to leave g7/h7 allowing queening tactics).
Here's an instructive example of this ending playing out:
The defense is more complicated when the kingside pawns are blocked off (so black cannot create a passed pawn as easily)
It's worth noting that if we have blocked pawns that are further advanced the weakened structure will tell
Another exception is when the Black king cannot reach the safety on G7/H7
Increasing the number of pawns on the board usually helps the side that is pressing:
Likewise, reducing the material helps the defender.
That's it for now. The topic of rook and pawn endgames is FAR from exhausted, but next time i'll take a break and look at something different.
