Capablanca Chess Fundamentals example 59

In the book Chess Fundamentals by J.R. Capablanca, this is one of the lines of example 59. A rook and pawns endgame. After the position above, Capablanca wrote:

"The position we have arrived at is won by white, because there are two files between the opposing King and Pawn from which the King is cut off by the Rook, and besides, the Pawn can advance to the fourth rank before the opponent's Rook can begin to check on the file. This last condition is very important, because is the Black Rook were at h8, and Black had the move, he could draw by preventing the advance of the Pawn, either through constant check or by playing ... Rf8 at the proper time. Now that we have explained the reasons why this position is won, we leave it to the student to work out the correct solution."

I tried to play this position as White on my tablet against the Stockfish DD chess engine (with the Analyze This app). The computer says "draw" all the time, and that's what I do: draw. What is the winning strategy?

Do you know the Lucena position? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucena_position

Once you know what you're trying to achieve and the technique from there, that should help.

You need to move the rook, preferably as far from the king as possible - d1 or d8 should do it. Then just advance king and pawn, preferably with the king in front of the pawn.

You should also be aware of some drawing techniques in rook endgames, specificially the Philidor position which isn't possible with the black king cut off.

Scottrf and achja, thank you. I will try your tips against the Stockfish chess engine.

The Lucena position and the Philidor position. One could study for a week on those Wikipedia articles. Achja, notice that the position in the book starts with black to move.

I'm sure you could. There are a lot of ways to throw away half points in rook endgames.

It's not an easy position, so if you're stuck at some stage you may want to switch sides with the engine to get some ideas

achaj, I think your example is still smart because you make use of black's king standing in the way of his own rook.

Finally I won against the Critter engine (the Stockfish engine did not work properly on the Analyze This app). The engine calculated 18 moves deep. For some moves, I got stuck and I did switch sides with the engine (peeked into the line calculated by the engine) to get an idea. Here is the game.

My play is definitely not optimal as you can see! Trial-and-error. Now I am only a 1200 player. But could this position with the rook in front of the pawn be the first part of the plan?

An other highlight (I think) is the white rook still cutting off the black king, while being defended by the white pawn. So the white king has freedom to move.

The last step is reaching the Lucena position, which is won by white.

I really would appreciate some useful commentary. I doubt I could repeat this win every time in a live game.

I agree with hvandermass.
Black moves:
13...Rh8 14.f4 Re8+ 15.Kf3 Rf8 and black has perpetual checks and stop the white pawn.

13...Rh8 14. Rc2+ Kb6 (13..Kb4 doesn't help) 15. f4 Re8+ 16. Kd6 Rf8 17. Rf2 (17. Rb2+ first is also possible) wins for White.

The key position seems to be after 11. Ke3 Rh8; as Capablanca says it's a draw with Black to move but a win with White to move. There is a similar example in "Fundamental Chess Endings" by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht - see Diagram 6.44 on page 183. There White has the king on c3, rook on e1 and pawn on c4, while Black has the king on f6 and rook on c8. The winning method is the same in both cases because the pawn is a bishop's pawn and the Black king is cut off from it by two files. White advances the king on the "short side" of the pawn and at the right moment places the rook behind the pawn. Black then won't be able to stop the pawn's advance. For example: 11. Ke3 Rh8 12. f4 Re8+ 13. Kf3 Rf8 14. Kg4 (threatens f4-f5) Rg8+ 15. Kh5 Rf8 16. Kg5 Rg8+ 17. Kh6 Rf8 18. Rf2 Kd6 19. Kg7 Rf5 20. Kg6 Ra5 21. f5 etc.That's about the same as the winning line given in FCE, only with the pawn on the f-file rather than the c-file.