Rook and Pawn vs Bishop and Pawn: The Colour Barrier
Black to play and draw, after Rubinstein - Tartakower, Vienna 1922
PlayYou have rook against bishop and you still cannot win. White has two ways to defend: attack your g5 pawn with the bishop, or build a barrier, the bishop covering squares of one colour and the g4 pawn the other. Your only plan: the king guards the pawn, the rook goes to the fifth rank, then the king walks round it. Here it is not enough.
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The Colour Barrier You Cannot Cross
Black to play and draw · Hold the draw against perfect play
Waking the engine…
The theory
Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.
Rubinstein could not break this against Tartakower in 1922, and neither can you. Understanding why is what makes the idea transferable.
The complete colour barrier. The defender controls the squares of one colour with the bishop and the squares of the other colour with the pawn. With both colours covered, the invading king has no route in, no matter how much material you have. This is the reason the defender keeps his pawn OFF his own bishop's colour.
Active defence is the alternative. Where a barrier is not available, the defender attacks the enemy pawn with the bishop or the king instead. Barrier or counterattack, those are the two ways to save these endings.
The attacker's only plan. Shield the pawn with the king, swing the rook up to the fifth rank, then walk the king around it. There is no other try, and here it does not win.
In this drill you press with the extra exchange against a wall. Learn its shape from the inside and take the draw.
Keep going
Give the Bishop, Reach Rook Against Pawn
White to play and draw
Rook vs Knight: The Stranded Horse
White to play and win
Rook and Bishop vs Rook: The Second Rank
Black to play and draw
All 30 rook vs minor positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)