Rook Endgame: The Rook at the Side of the Pawn
Black to play and win
PlayYou are a pawn up, with a passed pawn on b6 and another pawn on g5. In rook endings, the usual way to convert this kind of material edge is to protect all your pawns with the rook from the side. That is exactly what wins here.
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The Rook at the Side of the Pawns
Black to play and win · Win against perfect defense
Waking the engine…
The theory
The rook at the side. The typical method of converting a material advantage in a rook ending is to protect all of your pawns with the rook from the side, along a single rank. One piece covers everything, and the king is free.
Then the king escorts. With the rook doing the defending, the king walks up beside the passed pawn and shepherds it home.
When to use it. Side placement is right when the rook also shields your other pawns, or when the passer is far advanced. If the rook has nothing else to defend and the pawn is still on its second or third rank, a rook defending from the side is too passive, and the rook belongs behind the pawn.
In this drill only the fifth-rank rook moves win. Escorting the pawn any other way lets the draw back in.
Keep going
The Exchange Threat and the Rook Sacrifice
Black to play and draw
Doubled Pawns and the Philidor Draw
White to play and draw
The Gap Between the f- and h-Pawns
White to play and draw
All 96 rook endgames positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)