Here we are already in week four of chess summer school. We are currently looking at rook and pawn endings, the bread and butter of good players. Our third example this week comes from a good player’s bag of tricks, so to speak. I can’t count the number of times my rook ended up in front of my pawn instead of the other way around. Here’s one of the little strategies you use to deal with it. Well worth remembering!

Solution:

When you take a walk you should know where you’re going. White does just that. Black has to tag along to prevent the White rook from checking and then having the pawn promote. However the walk has a purpose. Watch: 1.Kf4 Kf2 2.Ke4 Ke2 [2...Ra4+ 3.Kd5 Ra5+ 4.Kc4 Ra4+ 5.Kb5 Ra3 6.Rf8+] 3.Kd4 Kd2 4.Kc5 Kc3 5.Rc8 Rxa7 6.Kb6+

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