Rook Endgame: Winning with the Pawn on the Sixth Rank

Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.

Rook and pawn versus rook is the most common endgame in chess, and the pawn on the sixth with your king in front of it is the shape you have to know cold. It is won, but only by one idea, and it is not the one most players reach for.

Your own king is the obstacle. With the king on e7 and the pawn on e6, the pawn has nowhere to go. Step aside with Kd6, Kd7 or Kd8 and the win is gone. Only 1.Ke8 keeps it, along with the quicker check 1.Rg1+.

Then the pawn, then the shield. After 1.Ke8 Kf6 2.e7 the pawn is protected by the king, and 2...Ra8+ is answered by 3.Rd8, blocking the check on a square your king covers. The tempo check 4.Rd6+ pushes the black king off f6 and the pawn promotes.

This is not the bridge. Lucena's bridge belongs to the position with the pawn already on the seventh and the king boxed in front of it, where your rook interposes against checks coming down the file. Here the technique is different: king to the queening square, pawn forward, rook blocking and checking.

In this drill the defense checks and never lets up. Find Ke8 on move one and the rest follows.