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White to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

Our last rook and pawn ending in this fifth week of chess summer school is a very common one. White, of course, needs to keep the Black king from crossing the rook’s “laser line” on the board, but how do you get the king and pawn up to the other end of the board without unending checks? There’s a way!


Solution:

From a study by Gregoriev in 1937. White first protects the b-pawn to allow the king to move forward. 1.Rd4 Ke6 [Black's best chance (hoping for a White mistake) is to play 1...Rd8 and now look at what can go terribly wrong on move 3: 2.Rxd8 Kxd8 3.Ka4! (3.Kc4? Kc8 4.Kc5 Kc7 5.Kb5 Kb7 6.Ka5 Ka7 7.b5 Kb7) 3...Kc8 (3...Kc7 4.Ka5 Kb7 5.Kb5 Ka7 6.Kc6 Kb8 7.Kb6 Ka8 8.Kc7 Ka7 9.b5 Ka8 10.Kb6 Kb8 11.Ka6 Kc7 12.b6+ Kb8 13.b7) 4.Ka5 Kb7 5.Kb5 Ka7 6.Kc6 Kb8 7.b5 Ka7 8.Kc7 Ka8 9.Kb6 (9.b6??) 9...Kb8 10.Ka6 Kc7 11.b6+ Kb8 12.b7 If you have a board set up, look at the difference in the two position where you have the White king on b5 and the Black king on b7. The game is decided on whose move it is. That's why 3.Ka4 wins and 3.Kc5 only draws. Frankly, I would be most chess players shown the position would play 3.Kc5. This demonstrates that rook and pawn endings often end up as king and pawn endings and you had better know the principles of both.] 2.Kc4 Rc8+ [Watch how White squeezes Black in this line: 2...Ke5 3.Rd5+ Ke6 4.b5 Rb7 5.Rc5 Kd6 6.Rc6+ Kd7 7.Kc5 Ke7 (7...Rb8 8.b6 Rh8 9.b7) 8.b6 Kd7 9.Rg6 Rb8 10.Kb5 Kc8 11.Rg8+ Kb7 12.Rg7+ (12.Rxb8+?? Kxb8 13.Kc6 Kc8) 12...Kc8 13.Kc6] 3.Kb5 Rb8+ 4.Kc6 Rc8+ 5.Kb7 Rc1 6.b5 [and now we are in a familiar position if you learned your previous lesson on July 4th because it will turn into that position. There are hundreds of rook and pawn and king and pawn endings. I've tried to give you some key ones that happen with some frequency. Please make sure you play through all the variations here on a board to get these images in your brain!] Next week, week six, we’ll take a look at a key skill all players must have in the middle game.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

 

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