Rook Endgames (Phase 5)
The most common endgame in chess. Lucena, Philidor, and the basic rook endgame techniques.
Rook 3v3 and 1 extra pawn
"Pawns need to be pushed." Support the pawn from behind is the best spot for a rook, if we can reach that put it there and start pushing the pawn!
Sometimes you cannot get your rook behind the passer. Here we can defend the pawn with either Ra8 or Rb6. The general rule is that behind the pawn is the best, side of the pawn is second best and third best (worst) is infront of the pawn
The worst case is when your rook finds itself in front of the pawn. The best winning chance is to bring the king to a7 and then promote the pawn. Important to leave a square for a7 so our king has somewhere to hide
The king is about to take our pawn and it seems there's no way to save it. Rook behind the pawn!
This is the common way to promote a pawn when we have a check on the back rank. We use the fact that the pawn on d6 prevents the king from going to e7.
First we centralize our king, then we push the pawn as a decoy for our king to infiltrate
Flank pawn rook endgames
Our king is cutoff, however the white king has no shelter, the way to hold a draw is to check the white king away, then attack the a pawn and bring our king
Here only Re4 holds the draw! Rook endgames are very tricky. We use the checking technique and then bring our king
Drill these positions in spaced repetition
FSRS-6 spaced repetition surfaces only the positions you need to refresh. Free to use.
Get started free →