Queen vs Rook and Pawn: Count the Protected Squares
White to play and draw
PlayQueen against rook and pawn: his king guards the pawn on d7, and the rook keeps your king and queen away from it. The rule: count the squares where the pawn guards the rook. Here there are two, c6 and e6, so the rook always has a safe move. There is no zugzwang and no win. Take the draw, and keep your queen out of reach of rook checks.
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Two Protected Squares, No Zugzwang
White 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.
First the danger, because the rook can check too. A queen standing on the same line as your king is a target. Qf4 would be a mistake: Rf6+ checks your king, and when it steps aside, the rook takes the queen. Then the pawn wins the game for Black.
Queen against rook and pawn is the heart of the ending, and one question settles most of it.
The criterion. Count the squares the defender's pawn protects for his rook. If the rook has TWO protected squares, the attacker cannot construct a zugzwang: whatever you attack, the rook steps to the other one. If it has only ONE, the zugzwang works and the attacking king breaks in.
The division of labour. In this class the defending king protects the pawn while the rook keeps the hostile pieces at arm's length. Philidor set it out in 1777.
Here. The d7 pawn protects c6 and e6. The rook shuttles between them, for example Qh8 Rc6, and White never makes progress.
In this drill you hold the queen and the honest result is a draw. Learn to read the count before you spend forty moves pressing.
Keep going
The Rook Pawn on the Seventh: Only One Protected Square
White to play and win
The Rook Pawn on the Sixth: A Break-in That Wins Nothing
White to play and draw
A Central Pawn on the Sixth Is Lost
White to play and win
All 19 queen vs rook positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)