ROOK ENDINGS
Rook endings occur more often than any other single piece endgame. Learning the basics of how to play this is the bedrock for any improving player. One early grandmaster proclaimed that all rook endings are drawn, but that is far from the truth. We will learn some of the most key positions to begin to understand rook endgames.
One of the most famous of these positions is known as the Lucena Position. Lucena wrote a great chess book in 1497, but this important position was not discussed there. The first time this position was analyzed in print was by Salvio, in 1634. But Lucena gets the credit anyway!
The next position goes hand-in-hand with the Lucena position. This is the Philidor Position.
The Philidor Position shows us how to draw a rook and pawn ending if the Black King controls the queening square. We will start with the most difficult example, to demonstrate the fine margins needed to draw this.
We will look at the position first with BLACK to move, then with WHITE to move. With Black to move, the game is a draw. White to move wins.
But with White to move, White can force the King from its key square.
The above positions are often considered the most important in all of chess.
Having said that, these are only the first building blocks towards understanding Rook endgames. We will analyze more Rook endings in future lessons.
Today we will cover some basic endgame themes that we haven't already discussed.
We will look at:
Many of these endgames do not have a single forcing line, so we won't be doing many "puzzles" today.