Rook Endgame - Only one move is winning

50kg said all you need to know in the second post. Ke3 isn't winning because Ra3ch. King safety is not relevant in this endgame. In rook endgames, it nearly always a good idea for the weaker side to avoid exchanging rooks.

@TwoMove, right, he said everything but I needed to rephrase everything and metabolize it, so I followed here my path to get it. Maybe it will help somebody, or maybe it will help only me next time I will have doubt in a rook endgame, and I will remember that I wrote in the forum about it!

@RedMountainFox, to be honest I am so bad at calculating in endgames than having some easy rule to follow in some special case seems a big help to me. Not to mention, this was one of the drills you linked to me. For me time is always an issue, I very often run out of time in 60 minute games.
But you stressed indeed an important point, that I already mentioned around here.
Classes, drills, and so on and so forth, very often focus on material that is too difficult. Maybe what we beginners should focus on is really little things and understand a few basic concepts, yet... I am decent at theory and then play terribly.

There are for sure some bad habits of mine that I should take out of the equation to improve.

I agree. I had to to take the triangulation lesson 2x.

makes sense, my thought process was, "How to stop repeated checks" which led me to Kf3 where by I can just block his check with pawn if he goes to Ra3+ or run in front of my pawn after Rf8+.

I will have to take it 300 times before grasping it. I think I have already done it 20 times.

@TheGuyThatIsNew, that sounds an interesting way to think.

Everything has mostly been said but …Kf3 is the only move that makes any sense, it’s not even necessary to be totally confident it’s winning as every other move can be summarily dismissed:

Rook moves: let’s whites king head over the e1 square so can be rejected

Same with pushing the pawn: king can come over (also allows Rf8+ and provided white doesn’t fall asleep and check blacks king around to e2 it’s an easy draw.

Ke3 makes no sense after Ra3+ again with an easy draw.

So it only really leaves …Kf3 which (as has already been pointed out) means white can’t just play Kd1 and just waits for white to show their hand.

With whites king on e1 (instead of c1) white would be holding but check the famous game Aronian-Carlsen 2006 where a young Magnus messed up a similar situation.

Thank you a lot, @JamesColeman!

I found a couple of videos on the endgame you mentionedAnd also one in Russian, that seems very well explained, but my rusty A2-B1 in Russian is not helping to grasp each and every concept.

I always find funny that Russian uses in chess some German words like Schachmatt and Endspiel.

I think in the game I did Ke1 myself. Then I won because the opponent was as bad as I am in endgames and did a blunder, allowing me a mate in 1.

I have downloaded the Total Chess Endgames 1600-2400 from Chess King on my mobile. It has quite some good tutorials and examples, at least for opposition! I will have to check the free material first, as usual. It is curated by Panchenko, the author of one of the three books suggested in the Russian video. I have the feeling I will have to learn a bit more Russian, there is a lot of good chess material. As if I did not have already enough material around...

I found a nice video on the Lucena and Philidor positions in Italian. In the end I will use this thread to study. Yesterday instead I found this one, of a CM that just started his channel and is doing it pretty well. It explains the concept that there is at the end of the previous video, the passive defense. He should explain the Philidor today!And a class about the passive defense with exercises.
https://www.chess.com/lessons/do-or-die-with-rook-endings/the-passive-defenceIt is part of a course called "Do or Die with Rook Endings". It seems nice!

@SeanLin29, R for Roooooooooooook?

@Marziotta thank you, but again I'm only 1400, so it's a simple thought process. I probably should learn more true thought processes, but this thought process worked for me in that situation.

@TheGuyThatIsNew, good thought process and a sane intuition can help. I feel my intuition is still dormant. And my rating is lower than yours.

Indeed, I am happy to have seen so many opinions, including yours, and ways to see that position! I will not put everything in practice straight away, but knowing a bit more of the theory and being able to put it in context will allow me, the next time, to say "here it could be crucial if I would remember passive defense, or lucena or philidor position.". And even if I will lose, I will be able to figure out why, and this is already a big lesson!

And, to go on about rook endgames... Why not trying some drills?

https://www.chess.com/endgames/rook/winning-rook-endings/learn

There is also another user asking some questions about it, maybe some of the people helping me can help him as well!

Here you can find the forum post!

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/endgames/chess-com-winning-rook-endings

Helpful

And some more videos...

The material is probably a bit too hard for me at the moment, but ok, I will review everything at some later point.

But the first one has some good rules of thumbs that can help even if you cannot put everything in practice perfectly.

To be honest, I am trying to do a lot of easy puzzles to ingrain some easy patterns and recognize them fast. I hope that slowly I will get better!

I am not the biggest fan of Gotham Chess, at least for informative content at my level, if you want a good laugh he is totally fine, and his special series in collaboration with wired or chess.com are paramount, but let's stop digressing...

In this video Levy sums up a lot of things about rook endgames. I would check it after all others, to be able to see everything at once and connect the dots.

Actually, I did not check the Vancoura position yet, and I am not even sure how to write it, but I will probably look for some video about it as well!

Probably the first video you have to check about rook endgames...