Actually an interesting ending. The best try for white to survive would be to find some position where his rook and king are widely separated while cutting off black's king. A start position with W) Ka2 Rg1 B) Kh6 Sa3 might be interesting to look at. Also maybe W) Ka2 Rd8 B) Kf6 Sa3 would be interesting to analyse.
Musketeer Chess Endgame, King + Spider vs King + Rook
Sort:
This potential fortress is also worth examining as it can be set up more easily than Rg1 and K on h file. I think a second rank defense does not work for white. White's defensive idea is to meet 1...Sd6 2 Kg1 Sc4 with 3 Ra8 Se3+ 4 Kh2 Kf3 5 Rf8+ reestablishing the 3rd rank defense and holding. Instead 3 Rh3 loses to 3...,Sd2+when white loses his rook regardless of where he moves his king.
If this example works then maybe in your position, Zied, maybe 2 Rh1 aiming for Rh3 or even h4 might be a better defense for white than 2. Ke1. Against Spider checks white would move his king, left away from the Rook.
The Spider-vs-Rook end-game is indeed a general (fortress) draw; only 7% of all possible (legal and illegal) position is lost for the Rook side when it has the move. (This was calculated with a Spider that also jumps diagonally, which should hardly make a difference in a late end-game where there is nothing to jump over, and in any case would make the Spider appear stronger than it really is.) Only 67% of the positions is won with the Spider side to move, mostly because it can capture a King or unprotected Rook on the first move, or fork the two when they are well separated. (For a generally won edgame this is typically >99%.)
spider should prevail always because of it's outstanding mating capabilities !
1. Kd2 Sc5 2. Ke1 Se7 3. Kf2 Sf5 4. Rf1 Sd4+ 5. Kg3+ Kg5 6. Rf8 Se6 7. Rf1 Se4+ 8. Kh3 Sg4+ 9. Kg3 Se3+ 40. Kf3 Sxf1+