For week five of chess summer school, we’re sticking with the very essential rook and pawn endings. BTW, if you’re just getting on board with this, go back to previous weeks in our archive. Today’s position also happens a fair amount of times. Not only can you find your rook in front of the passed pawn, but often your king finds a hiding place in front of the pawn to avoid your opponent’s rook checks. Today’s position shows why that can be tricky.

Solution:

Set up your board as it’s worth playing over, especially for move seven! 1.Rc8 [This makes sense. You want to oppose rooks with Rb8 and then maybe get Rb7 in and Kb8. Black will make you work for it.]1...Kd6 2.Rb8 Rh1 [Oh, sure! Now if 3.Rb7 Rh8+ 4.Rb8 Rh1 and we are not getting anywhere, so...]3.Kb7 Rb1+ 4.Kc8 Rc1+ 5.Kd8 [One mission accomplished. You are shielded from the checks of the rook. Now, however, Black can threaten mate in one!]5...Rh1 6.Rb6+ [Moving the king doesn't help: 6.Ke8 Rh8+ 7.Kf7 Rh7+ and the pawn goes.; 6.Kc8 Rc1+ 7.Kb7 Rb1+ and we're back to square one.]6...Kc5 [And now we find out why we actually study rook and pawn endings: to teach us to be alert on every move! White comes up with a great idea:] 7.Rc6+!! [It's a draw after: 7.Re6 Ra1 8.Re7 Kb6; and a lot of players will have a tough time winning this ending: 7.Rb1 Rxb1 8.a8Q The rook sacrifce does the job a lot quicker.]7...Kb5 [A quick loss for Black is: 7...Kxc6 8.a8Q+; and the world is right side up with the rook behind the passed pawn after 7...Kd5 8.Ra6 Rh8+ 9.Kc7 Rh7+ 10.Kb6 Rh6+ 11.Kb5]8.Rc8 Rh8+ 9.Kc7 Rh7+ 10.Kb8 [and the pawn queens...or Black takes the pawn with the rook to see if you can mate with king and rook vs. king. Hope you can do that! If not, write and I'll tell you!]

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