Rook Endgames #1

Hi everyone,

in this article, I will focus the attention about the rook endgames. Know this positions is very important, because the rook endgame is very common in chess.

My tips is study “endgames with rook(s) and pawns” and “endgames in which you find rook against paw(s)”

I recently added a video in the playlist “About me” in which I insert all the videos in which I play , I make chess courses, simuls etc.

In this video I lost a better endgame against the NM Riccardo Alaimo, I think this endgame is very interesting ( I’m playing as white)

We reached this position…for sure white has to move the king (to allow the promotion) but the problem is what square I should choose ?

[fen]8/1K3p1k/1P5p/8/6p1/4rp2/2P2R1P/8 w – – 0 1[/fen]

In this kind of position the time is crucial, for this reason is very important check that your king can’t stop the pawn! In this case the right move is Ka6! , the reason is that after Ra3+, king can go to b5 without block the pawn!

[pgn]
[Event “?”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “????.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Inserisci nuova partita”]
[Black “?”]
[Result “*”]
[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “8/1K3p1k/1P5p/8/6p1/4rp2/2P2R1P/8 w – – 0 3”]
[PlyCount “25”]
{[pgndiagram]}
3. Ka6 Ra3+ 4. Kb5 Ra1 5. c4 Rb1+ 6. Kc6 f5 7. b7 f4 8. Kc7 Kg6 9. c5 Kf5 10.
b8=Q Rxb8 11. Kxb8 Ke4 12. c6 g3 13. Rb2 g2 14. c7 g1=Q 15. c8=Q *
[/pgn]

In this position white has the rook and queen, so he has good chance to mate the black king 🙂

In my game I played in this way, I made important mistakes and at end I lost badly, why? I played this game 5 years ago and I probably underestimated the strength of the pawns against the rook on the king side!

[pgn]
[Event “?”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “????.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Inserisci nuova partita”]
[Black “?”]
[Result “*”]
[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “8/1p3p1k/1K5p/1P4p1/5p2/4r3/2P2R1P/8 w – – 0 1”]
[PlyCount “28”]
{[pgndiagram]}
1. Kxb7 f3 2. b6 g4 3. Ka7 $6 (3. Ka6 Ra3+ 4. Kb5 Ra2 (4… Ra1 5. c4 Rb1+ 6.
Kc6 f5 7. b7 f4 8. Kc7 Kg6 9. c5 Kf5 10. b8=Q Rxb8 11. Kxb8 Ke4 12. c6 g3 13.
Rb2 g2 14. c7 g1=Q 15. c8=Q) 5. b7 f5 6. Kc6 Rb2 7. c4) 3… Re2 $2 (3… Ra3+
$1 4. Kb8 h5 5. b7 Ra4 6. Kc7 Rc4+ 7. Kd7 Rb4 8. Kc7 $11) 4. Rf1 $4 {I missed
the promotion!} (4. b7 $1 Rxf2 5. b8=Q Rxc2 $2 6. Qb1 $1 {now white wins}) 4…
Rxc2 5. b7 Ra2+ 6. Kb6 Rb2+ 7. Kc7 Kg6 8. b8=Q Rxb8 9. Kxb8 {now the pawns win
against the rook} Kg5 10. Kc7 f5 11. Kd6 Kf4 12. Ke6 h5 13. Kf6 h4 14. Kg6 g3 *
[/pgn]