Rook Endgames #2

As part of my studying, I have been using the book Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman. In this post, I will be summarising, extending and reinforcing the lessons on rook endgames from parts 5 and 6 of that book. The analysis is my own.

Rook and 2 Connected Pawns vs Rook

The first position under consideration is this one, where the White side has two connected passed pawns and a rook against Black's lone rook. Silman tells us that the position with rook and knight pawn is the most difficult (compared to central pawns) so uses this to demonstrate the ideas. White needs to keep his pieces together, moving king and pawns up the board in a unit and using the pawns to be able to protect the king from check.

I played around with a few variations, using the tablebases, and it doesn't seem to matter where White's king and rook are - as long as Black can't start taking pawns immediately, White is winning.

Silman gives some positions in this line where Black plays for stalemate by moving his king into the corner. For this reason, I liked the idea of using the White rook to cut the king off from the g+h files where possible. If this is not possible, we need to avoid trapping the enemy king in the corner which is a result of pushing the pawns too far up when the king has nowhere to go.

Rooks on the 7th

The next section is a short piece of general advice to put rooks on the 7th rank in the endgame where possible. This is well-known general advice - I'm surprised it's found so deep in the book - as it often presents the opportunity to gobble up pawns that haven't moved, and can help to pin the enemy king on the back rank.

Lucena Position with a rook pawn

The position above is similar to the Lucena position from the last set of rook endgames, but the pawn is a rook pawn. This presents some extra challenges as one "side" of the pawn lies off the edge of the board and cannot be used.

The general rule here is that the side with the pawn wins if the enemy king is cut off by four or more files (as above).

This position is more difficult than any of the others but involves a few general ideas
1. Get the rook to b8
2. Get the king out of the way of the queening square
3. Either get the rook behind the pawn or force Black to take on e.g. c6 where White can promote with check.

All the lines start with the same ideas
1. Rc1 Ke7 (or Ke6, it's the same) 2. Rc8 Kd6 3. Rb8 Ra2 4. Kb7 Rb2+ 5. Kc8 Rc2+ 6. Kd8 Rg2 (Black shows a major idea here, as White cannot allow himself to be mated) 7. Rb6+ Kc5 (if Kxc6, 8. a8=Q+ is winning for White as promoting with check buys him a move to escape the skewer) 8. Rc6+ Kd5 (if Kb5, 9. Rc8 allows White to control the promotion square) 9. Ra6 Rg8+ 10. Kc7

Black can try to keep checking the White king but he will hide away behind the Black king. And if Black tries to occupy the queening square, White will simply go and capture the rook.

Rook in front of its 7th-rank pawn

Next we consider this drawn position.

Black has a simple plan - move along the a-file, staying well away from the White king, and if White ever tries to protect the pawn with his king, deliver a check.

However there is one important element of the position we must acknowledge. The Black king must be either on g7/h7 (where it can't be safely checked) or on the b6/b7/c6/c7 set of squares, where it can help with the pawn (the position of the White king is irrelevant). These squares are indicated on the below diagram

To demonstrate the idea for White, on the first position we play 1. Kc5 Kg7 2. Kb6 Kf7? 3. Rh8! Now if Black takes the pawn White will check the king and win the rook. If Black doesn't take the pawn, White now controls the unoccupied queening square.

From those positions we work backwards to the position before the pawn was pushed to a7, and we come to consider the Vancura Position

Either side to move, Black draws.

The Black rook has more freedom than the White rook, which must defend the pawn. Black can here check the King from the f-file, returning to attack the pawn where needed to contain the rook. White cannot hide from the checks. One line I did find interesting was 1. Kd5 Rf5+ 2. Ke6 Rf6+ 3. Ke5 Rb6 4. Ra7+ Kg6 5. Kd4 Rf6 where Black has to be careful not to try to do too much, sticking to the ideas of containing the pawn and not giving White the opportunity to progress. This position can transition into the above ideas - of White tries to push the pawn, Black plays rook to the a-file and holds as above.

There is another set of positions in the section, but I will pick up those and the information in part 7 next time.