Do or Die with Rook Endings
Endings with rooks and pawns are by far the most common endings in chess. You will probably lose or gain as more points in these positions than in all other endings combined. Therefore you need to know the basic positions, and some strategic principles when the play becomes more difficult. I want to have you learn and practice the former, and give you a feel for the latter.
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We'll start out with the most fundamental rook-and-pawn endings that involve rook-and-pawn versus rook. They are probably more useful to master than any other rook endings. In this lesson we look at a basic starting position.
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The Philidor Position is the most basic of all defensive postures in rook-and-pawn endings, and the easiest to remember. I've twice seen promising young players rated above 2200 USCF lose games because they didn't know this defense. It's so simple that...
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There's one more basic technique to know for the defender: checking from a distance. This relates to the concept of the king escaping to the 'short side'. It succeeds in securing a draw when the Philidor position isn't available. If you memorize the idea,...
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Let's practice the techniques of the previous lessons.
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You may be wondering what happens if Black just hangs around on the first rank. This is called the "passive defence", and like most passive setups in chess, it is a last resort.
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When the extra pawn is a knight pawn, the situation is exceptional in two respects. This lesson illustrates the first one.
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We just saw that the normal rook move behind the pawn doesn't work when White has a passed pawn. How else can Black try to draw?
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Very often the stronger side can cut the king of the weaker side off by one or more files. In the example in this lesson, White wins by a concrete method that MUST be memorized. As early as 1497, the Spaniard Lucena demonstrated this method. Along with...
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Let's get a little practice with the Lucena Position method that you learned in the last lesson.
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If the stars are aligned and White's pawn hasn't advanced very far, then you can sometimes still draw even if your king is cut off by a file.
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Now we move to a situation of rook-versus-pawn. This doesn't happen as often as rook-and-pawn versus rook, but it's important to know when you're winning, losing or drawing such endings before you get them on the board.
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Sometimes you can't get behind the pawn in time, but there's another way.
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When you want to queen your pawn, sometimes you have to be rude to the other pieces!
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Let's get some practice with the shoulder technique we just learned. This one's pretty tricky!
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Here's another look at the shouldering idea. The solution looks a little different this time.
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Let's put another pawn on the board and see how that changes things. Shouldering and opposition will be important here, too.
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Now let's look at the rook versus connected passed pawns. They are easy to get used to, with a couple of simple things to remember.
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More connected pawns, and the 6th rank rule is still the most important. But it's not easy by a long shot.
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Here's another connected pawns example. This time it's with a knight pawn and rook pawn, which changes a few things.
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We finish with a study by the great Richard Reti. It illustrates several basic endgame techniques.