Rook and Pawn vs Bishop and Pawn: The Winning Method
White to play and win, after Rohacek - Stoltz, Munich 1942
PlayRook and pawn against bishop and pawn, with the pawns blocked on the same file. Black has broken the defender's golden rule, and it costs him the game. Three ideas decide it: the colour of his pawn, the colour of your king's route, and the exchange sacrifice at the end.
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The Pawn on the Bishop's Colour Is Lost
White to play and win · Win against perfect defense
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The theory
This is the standard technique for rook and pawn against bishop and pawn when the pawns stand on the same or adjacent files, and it comes in three parts.
The defender's rule. Do not protect your pawn by placing it on a square of your own bishop's colour. If the bishop and the pawn both cover the same colour, the other colour is wide open and there is nothing to stop the enemy king. Almost every such position is lost.
The attacker's route. Advance your king along the squares of the OPPOSITE colour to the bishop, where the bishop can never touch it. Drive the defending king away from its pawn, which is now undefendable.
The attacker's finish: the exchange sacrifice. The rook comes off for the bishop. Here it is Rxf4, and after Bxf4 Kxf4 the resulting king and pawn ending is winning. Giving the rook up for a bishop looks absurd until you count the pawn ending.
In this drill the bishop shuffles and the king clings on. Push the king off the pawn, then cash in.
Keep going
The Knight Does Two Jobs on h3
White to play and draw
The Knight Belongs on h5
White to play and draw
Imprison the King, Then Zugzwang
Black to play and win
All 30 rook vs minor positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)