The Knight Underpromotion Defense
White to play and draw
PlayA whole rook is not always enough: a knight-pawn one step from queening, guarded by its king, holds the draw, and the defender even underpromotes to a knight to dodge your skewer.
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The Knight Underpromotion Defense
Hold the draw against perfect play
Waking the engine…
The theory
One of the most instructive shocks in the endgame is that an extra rook can be worth only a draw when the enemy pawn is one square from promotion and shielded by its king.
Why no win. Capturing the pawn frees the enemy king to draw, and stopping promotion any other way costs the rook. The best the attacker can do is force a perpetual or win a newly made queen.
The underpromotion. If the defender queens, a rook skewer or pin along the line collects the queen. To avoid it, the defender promotes to a knight, often with check, and king and knight versus rook is a theoretical draw.
In this drill you are the rook side, holding the half-point, so find the skewer against a queen and calmly accept the draw against the knight.