Rook endgame

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A rook endgame is an endgame in a game of chess in which both parties have no stones other than the king , rooks and / or pawns . Rook endings are among the most common endgames in chess. The most important basic rules are:

  • Towers belong behind the passed pawns, both behind your own and behind your opponents.
  • The king must try to control the square of his own or opposing pawn.

Tower against pawn

If the king of the rook party is in front of the pawn, then the rook party wins without any problems. However, if the king of the rook party cannot get near the pawn in time and the pawn is supported by his king, the game ends in a draw . A pawn can only win against the rook in very rare exceptional cases, see the Potter maneuver and the Saavedra study .

Rook against two connected pawns

Both winning the rook party and drawing as well as winning the peasant party often occur in practice. In some positions it is not clear who is the attacker and who is the defender. The assessment depends on the concrete position of the stones, in particular the position of the kings and how far the pawns have advanced.

If the king of the rook party is in front of the pawns, the rook party usually wins.

If the king of the rook party is removed from the pawns, the majority of the game ends in a draw: Either the pawns reach an even rook versus pawn endgame with a pawn, or if the rook party achieves an even pawn endgame by surrendering the rook against a converted pawn can handle. The rook party can win if the rook alone can eliminate both pawns or if its king can rush to the pawns in time. However, the pawns party can win if the rook has to surrender to a converted pawn and the remaining pawn endgame is won.

If the two connected pawns are already on the third or penultimate row with kings distant on both sides, then the pawns party usually wins (see variant starting with 32.Nd3 in the game Tylkowski - Wojciechowski, Poznań 1931 ). However, there is sometimes the possibility for the rook side to prevent the conversion of a pawn with constant threats of mating, as in the following example.

Josef Moravec
28 Rijen, 1924
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White draws and holds a draw

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White is drawing here as follows:
1. Kd5! g3 2. Kc6! g2 3rd Rb1 +! Ka7 4th Ra1 + Kb8 5th Rb1 + Kc8 6th Ra1! Kd8
A conversion would have been followed by 7.Ra8 mate!
7. Kd6 Ke8 8. Ke6 Kf8 9. Kf6 Kg8
Now 10. Kg6 loses? g1D +, but it draws
10.Ra8 +! Kh7 11th Ra7 + Kh6 12th Ra8! Kh5 13. Kf5 Kh4 14. Kf4 Kh5! draw
Of course not 14.… Kh3 ?? 15.Rh8 mate!

Another - albeit rare - draw resource of the rook party against far advanced passed pawns is the Prokeš maneuver .

Tower and pawn against tower

Defense strategies

If the defending king is in front of the pawn, then the likely outcome of the game is a draw . The simplest defense method has already been shown by Philidor : The defending king stands on or directly next to the pawn's conversion space. If the pawn and the attacking king have advanced to the fifth row of the pawn at the most, then the defending rook sets up a barrier against the king on the sixth row. If the pawn moves to the sixth row in order to unlock it, the defending rook swings to the back row of the attacking party in order to offer check to the attacking king from behind . He can no longer move in front of his pawns, so that there is no longer any way to avoid the permanent check or pawn loss.

If the defending king cannot get in front of the pawns, the draw - if it is still possible - is a lot more difficult for the defending party. In the case of a c, d, e or f pawn, she must try to place her king on the narrower side of the chessboard, i.e. the one with fewer lines between the pawn and the edge of the board. The defending rook must try to offer check to the attacking king from the side on the edge line of the wider chessboard side (Karstedt maneuver). In this way the defending party can still achieve a draw in a good number of cases.

Lucena position

Lucena position
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Diagram 1 : White to move wins.

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Typical winning positions in the final rook and pawn against rook are the so-called "Lucena positions" (for the controversial attribution see Lucena ). These are positions in which the pawn has reached the penultimate row and the attacking king occupies the conversion square.

See diagram 1 : White typically wins by moving his rook to c8, for example:

1. Ta1 Kf7
2. Ra8 Rc1
3. Rc8 Rd1
4. Kc7 Rc1 +
5. KB6 and wins, as the king on other chess bids approaching the tower and White finally d7-D8D converts .

Another profit possibility in Diagram 1 is the so-called construction of a bridge , that is the defense of a disturbing check command by placing the attacking tower on the right row:

1.Rf4 Kg6 (or another waiting move)
2. Ke7 Re2 +
3. Kd6 Rd2 +
4. Ke6 Re2 +
5. Kd5 Rd2 +
6. Rd4 with a win.

Instead of 1. Rf4 the white player does not reach the goal with an immediate 1. Ke7 , because the black rook has constant chess commands:

1.… Re2 +
2. Kd6 Rd2 + etc., the white king strays too far from his pawn, e.g. B. after c4, Td2 always follows and White gets no further.

Distraction of the tower

An instructive study of Troitsk shows a deviation of the promotion square Farmer guarding tower by a fork . The tower's function of holding the passed pawn can also be switched off by tying it up (see the last punch line in the Lasker maneuver ).

Double attack on king and rook

In Selesnjow's instructive study , the converted queen is sacrificed in order to steer the king onto a line of attack on which castling enables a double attack on both black pieces.

Deduction chess

The following profit study is from Alexei Troitski .

Alexei Troitsky
Novoye Vremja , October 2, 1895
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White to move wins
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Diagram 2
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Diagram 3
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In the position in the starting diagram, White wants to convert his pawn to a7 . A possibility must therefore be created to remove the rook with a gain in tempo from a8.

1. Kg6 (threatens 2.Rh8 +) Kg4
2. Kf6 Kf4
3rd Ke6 Ke4
4. Kd6 Kd4
5. Kc6 Kc4

The black king remains in opposition . If 5.… Rc2 +, the white king runs over the b- and a-lines towards the rook until the rook has run out of chess, has to move away and then the white rook with a check bid can clear the conversion square. The immediate approach of the white king on b7 or b6 fails. Black then bids check with the rook on b2 and a2 until the white king leaves the b-file again.

6. Rc8! (Diagram 2)

Black is forced to capture the pawn, whereupon White can give a decisive check .

6.… Rxa7
7. Kb6 +! (Diagram 3)

and Black loses the rook and the game.

Rook and pawn (s) versus rook and pawn (s)

With this material it is difficult to find general rules for assessing the outcome of the game.

An important maneuver in this endgame is the so-called bridge building: The king of the pawn stands on the conversion space in front of the pawn ready to move in and is jammed there by the opponent's rook and king. In the maneuver he leaves his hiding place and the chess of the opponent's rook is covered with his own rook, which ensures the conversion .

Another interesting winning procedure, the so-called Lasker maneuver , was shown by the later German world chess champion .

Towers without pawns against each other

Rook against rook almost always ends in a draw, unless a rook is lost to a spike . This can even happen if the king covers his rook, but after a check this cover is no longer sufficient because both pieces of the opponent have attacked the rook. The conclusion of the Saavedra study with the double attack on the king and rook is an exception.

Two towers prevail against one. The mansube from the 13th century shows an interesting combination .

Double rook ending

In the double rook ending , both players have the king , both rooks and possibly pawns . Double rook endings usually turn into normal rook endings after exchanging a pair of rooks. Even in chess books that are exclusively devoted to the rook endgame, there are only a few examples of double rook endings, if at all.

In double rook endings the game on mate plays a more important role than in normal rook endings. An example of a winning pawnless double rook ending can be found in the study by Henri Rinck (see there).

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