The Check That Buys a Tempo
White to play and win
PlayRook against a runner, and the manoeuvre is obvious: get the rook onto the g-file. Play it immediately and the game is drawn. Insert one check first and the very same manoeuvre wins.
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The Check That Buys a Tempo
White to play and win · Win against perfect defense
Waking the engine…
The theory
Rook against a passed pawn is decided by tempi, and a check is the cheapest tempo on the board.
Only Rf8+ wins. Not Rg8, not a king move, nothing else. The rook checks first, the black king is pushed off the f-file, and only then does the rook take up its post.
Then block. Rg8 stops the g-pawn dead. The whole point of the check was to reach this square with the enemy king a step further away.
Never trade the rook for the pawn. Rxg4 Kxg4 leaves two bare kings. The rook stops the pawn, the king wins it.
Why an intermediate move. An intermediate check gains a tempo only if it forces a reply. Here it does, and that single free move is exactly the margin between winning and drawing.
Keep going
Three Files Apart: The Rook Is Overloaded
Black to play and win
Where the Side Checks Run Out
White to play and win
The Structure Decides, Not the Tempo
White to play and win
All 83 rook endgames positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)